Final Fantasy 7: Other Fates
by CTopher-777
Summary: Everyone knows the story of how Cloud Strife started off his adventure of saving the world from destruction and it all started with the words "you'll...be my living legacy", but what if he never met with Tifa after reaching Midgar? What if a whole new story had unfolded? Here is the story of Other Fates, a story of a different road Cloud chose to take
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"You'll be…my living legacy" were the words of an unrecognizable yet familiar voice that echoed through the mans mind as he struggled to keep himself from collapsing, his feet feeling as heavy as stones while they dragged against the desert like ground which seemed to go unchanged for miles. The hazy image of Midgar off in the distance seemed like it hadn't come any closer than it was about an hour ago from when he started the journey towards what he would consider a sanctuary to the harsh environment.

His eyes squinting as he tried to observe at how much further he was from the large city, an exhausted sigh coming from his dry lips as frustration started to slowly swell within him. Not only was his own body weight and armor cladded Soldier uniform weighing him down, but the large buster sword that he dragged behind him didn't make traveling any easier. His exhaustion making the sword seem twice as heavy as it actually was. He wanted to drop the burden, the one thing keeping him from perhaps halving the time it took to reach his destination, but he couldn't. Something inside him prevented his hands from loosening their grip on the dust covered hilt of the sword.

Time went by as he pushed himself to keep going, his train of thought starting to leave him as his mind was becoming nothing more than a blank slate from how weak his body was becoming with each yard he traveled, not noticing till the last minute that the large gateway that led into the sector 7 area of Midgar was only a mere 10 yards from where he stood. A feeling of relief caused his spirits to be lifted, giving him a second wind that gave him enough energy to run over to the rusted doorway. The sword let out a loud 'thud' against the solid dirt ground as he had let it go to free his hands, using his now freed fists to pound on the metal doors in hopes that someone within would hear him and allow him into the city.

"Hey! Open up!" he would try to yell but only came out as a moderately loud yell since his voice was so strained from the lack of water and weakness from the mako induced coma that he had only woken up from less than a day ago.

The door refused to even show the slightest sign of opening up. Perhaps no one heard him pounding on the door. He continued to pound his fist as he hoped that someone would eventually hear him, but was suddenly stopped as he felt something push against his back and slam him against the metal wall in front of him, a intensity of pain in his face grew as it was the first thing to hit the door. His hand reached up rub his face to relieve the pain before he turned around only to see a sight that would cause his eyes to open wide in both surprise and fear.

A group of what looked like 100 Shinra guards stood there before him, each one aiming a machine gun at him, each of them with the same blank expression on their faces as they stood there, as if daring him to move or even twitch. He was caught, there was no way he could fight his way against 100 guards in the condition he was in and even if he did have the energy how could he? Being a first class soldier did prove that he was able to hold his own in a fight, but to take on such a large number of enemies all at once? Even the Sephiroth might not have been able to take on such a task himself.  
The guard closest to him took a step forward and lowered his gun, to the blonds surprise the mans body began to change almost instantly into a figure that he recognized right away, one that he would never have thought he would see again.

The form of Sephiroth stood before him now with his long Masamune in hand, grinning at him before lunging forward. Before he could even take a step in retaliation, Sephiroth already had his hand around the blonds throat, his katana style sword piercing him exactly where he had stabbed him back in Nibelheim.

"Did you really thing it would be that easy?" Sephiroth would say with the same grin on his lips before pushing the sword deeper into his chest, the ex-soldier trying to let out a scream of pain but was silenced by the pressure that was put on his throat by Sephiroths leather gloved hand.

"N..no" was all that went through his mind before he reached out and grabbed the silver haired Soldiers neck, now in a power struggle of who would choke who first. Although he already knew that Sephiroth would easily take him out with the position he was in, but he couldn't go out without fighting.

"It's time..to let go" Sephiroth would say with a straight face, seeming completely unaffected by the hold his victim had on his own neck.

"W..what?" Cloud would manage to struggle to say as his eyes closed, wondering Sephiroth he meant to let go of him.

"Cloud! Let go!" Sephiroth would shout out but this time with a different voice, a voice that was very familiar and caused his eyes to reopen once again to find himself no longer in the desert like environment but rather a dusty, run down warehouse. He blinked once as he realized where he was and that his hand was powerfully wrapped around the neck of a green haired man who he instantly recognized. The man wore a brown vest and white shirt, a set of roughed up black dress pants with a few patches on some spots to cover holes previously made in them.

"Cl..Cloud, ge..off!" Clive would struggle to say as he tried to pry Clouds grip from his neck, feeling the pressure cut off all air from entering his lungs, causing his face to slowly turn to a shade of red. Cloud immediately let his hand relax and let go of the Clives neck.

"You know, you could have just said 'give me 5 more minutes' rather than killing me" Clive would say as he rubbed his neck, his expression not looking all that angry with Cloud even after having his head almost popped like a cork off of a wine bottle.

Wearing the same uniform that was given to him by Shinra months ago with the addition of a red scarf the covered the lower half of his face, Cloud let out a groan as he sat up and rubbed his forehead as he tried to rid himself of the tired state in which he was still in. The paper filled boxes that he had been laying on caused his back to feel as though it had been bent out of shape, showing that the makeshift bed that Cloud had made from the remains of what used to be in the warehouse that they now occupied was rather uncomfortable to sleep on.

"Sorry…" he would say as the images of his dream came to mind, remembering how the beginning of it was all too similar to what happened to him before coming to Midgar all of those months ago.

"Had that dream again huh?" Clive would ask with a slight tone of concern in his voice as he placed a cigarette in his mouth and lit it.

"If you really want to kill yourself that badly, maybe I shouldn't have let go. Those things are going to be the death of you if Shinra doesn't kill us first" Cloud would remark as he watched the younger man smoke his cigarette. This comment only made Clive shrug but caused a smirk to form on his face.

"Probably, but at least dying this way is less painful than by your death grip" he would say, this time Cloud smirking at the comment in return.

Cloud looked at the old clock that hung on the wall above the large doorway of the warehouse that separated them from the streets of Sector 3, the hands showing that it was just short of 2:00 pm, Cloud realizing that he had slept a lot longer than he wanted to.

"Damn…I guess it's almost time for the meeting" Cloud would say, more to himself but also as a question to Clive.

"Yep, well we might have to wait a bit…Jeanne isn't back yet" Clive would inform as Cloud stood up and stretched a bit, still feeling a bit sleepy from the unpleasant nap he had just awoken from, thinking to himself that he shouldn't be surprised. Jeanne was always out longer than what she would tell the others and had the tendency to add extra, unnecessary stops to her outings.

There wasn't much to the warehouse as all it was previously was a building for holding Shinra paper work, abandoned years ago after Shinra had designated one of the floors of the main headquarters for filing as it would be more secure for important documents rather than inside a warehouse in Sector 3 where anyone could break into and steal such important information. The building consisted of the main room which took up three quarters of the facility, an office room that occupied the northwest corner of the building which was now used to hold meetings in and a room attached to the office that was guessed to be used as a break room back in the day.

Cloud opened the door to the office, only to be greeted with a "About time you woke up" which came from a long red haired woman who sat at the only table that occupied the small office room. Wearing a black leather coat over her white top, dark blue jeans and the most unwomanly brown boots. Her green eyes peered at him with an observing look, one that Cloud new all too well as it was the one she would give him when she was concerned about him, possibly worried about him sleeping for so long.

"I am fine Rem, just overslept a bit" he would answer her question that never left her lips, his words making her look less concerned than she was when he first entered the room.

Cloud would look around to notice that the two youngest members of their group were absent from the meeting room. He would look over at Rem with a curious look "I take it Axel is in the lab still?" his question being answered with an eye roll and a glance over at the doorway that led into what they all considered to be Axels own private room for his experiments.

Figuring he was probably really into his work at the moment and needed a reminder, Clive walked up to the door to hear what sounded like a faint noise of metal being welded together. He knocked on the door three times powerfully, enough so that Axel would hear them from the other side of the door and over the metallic noises.

"Hey Mr. Prodigy! Meeting time!" Clive would say loudly before stepping away from the door to make his way to his usual seat at the table, his cigarette still in his mouth as half of it was already burnt out.

The sound that came from the make shift laboratory came to a stop, following seconds later was the door opening as a 13 year old blond boy came out from the room wearing a tattered old lab coat that was obviously a few sizes too big for him A set of square shaped glasses sitting somewhat loosely on his nose with a look of disapproval on his face before guiding his attention over to Clive.

"It seems we're down one member for this meeting to be started, was there any point to disrupting my work before the incompetent one would arrive?" Axel would say in a rather annoyed tone before sitting at the table, the only spot that had a computer in front of the chair. Immediately the computer was powered on by the boy as he sat down, the light from the monitor reflecting dully in his glasses. His comment was ignored by Clive who was already staring up at the ceiling with a look of being off in his own little world, a sight that was very common with him as he would lose interest in people very easily and was prone to daydream.

When seeing the others all in their usual spots at the table, Cloud let out a small sigh as he sat down at his spot at the head of the table "We'll give Jeanne a few more minutes before we start" these words causing Rem to give a bored 'ho hum' as she traced a finger on the table, both Clive and Axel seeming unaffected by Clouds suggestion as Clive still appeared to be in his own world and Axel was typing away on his computer, being focused on the monitor and nothing more.

After about ten minutes, Axel and Clive were still in their conscious commas while Cloud and Rem had started up a conversation on how they could improve their living conditions in the warehouse, Rem pointing out that perhaps another warehouse that wasn't so run down and was in a less populated area of Midgar would be better than the one they resided in currently. But Clouds point of finding such a place would be hard considering that they had lucked out on finding the one that they now resided in, along with the fact that it would be extremely hard to find another abandoned warehouse that would actually have running power like this one caused Rem to frown a bit, knowing that it would indeed be difficult to find something better than what they currently had.

The room would suddenly go quiet as all four member of the group heard the door that led out into the main area of the warehouse slowly open, a young girl with long black twin pigtails flowing down her back, a black skirt and a white short sleeved dress shirt covering her small frame and pink tie dangling around her neck would waltz into the room. With a big smile on her face she made her way over to the final chair that remained unoccupied, her carefree smile soon disappearing once she noticed all eyes were on her.

"You're late you know that, right?" Axel would comment without looking away from his computer monitor, words that merely made her stick her tongue out at him.

"Oh get off of it kiddo, I am not that late" she would say with a grin and her legs kicking slowly back and forth as they were only a few inches shy of touching the floor, knowing fully well that the term 'kiddo' on Axel was one that annoyed him when it would come from her as she was only a few years older than he was.

"Idiot" was all that came from Axel under his breath as he continued to type away, trying to ignore her as he didn't want to add much fuel to the fire between them.

Cloud would then clear his throat, an act that would catch everyone else's attention. Even Clive was brought back from his daydream world by the small noise.

"Well since everyone is here now we can start the meeting" he would say in a serious tone, signaling the others that it was now time to stay on topic  
"Our last attack on Shinra was…well a completely failure as I am sure you all remember" he would say as he sat back in his chair, the looks on the others faces showing that they knew exactly what he was referring to. Remembering how they tried to gain access into Shinra headquarters through the sewer system and how plan had failed when they realized that the Security Department of Shinra had implanted a system in the sewer tunnels and the guards were on them even before they could reach the manhole that would have taken them straight into the lower level of the building. Luckily for them the guards were less than enthusiastic about traveling through the filth covered tunnels than they were, letting them escape without any harm but requiring a number of much needed showers afterwards.

"Yeah, lets not do that again" Rem would say, her being the one who complained more than anyone else after reaching the base about the smell that clung to her and her clothes.

Rems complaint caused Jeanne to let out a small laugh "Aw come on Rem, you could have made millions making that smell into a perfume! Toilet de Toilette!" a joke that made Rem only frown over at the teen who didn't seem to notice the look that was given to her while she continued to laugh.

"Yes…well it was a plan worth trying out, but now at least we are aware that Shinra has a much more spread out security system than what we thought" Cloud would say to regain the attention of the others. His own attention brought over to Axel who was partially paying attention as he was still focused on the monitor before him.

"Axel, did you find out anything about the layout of the headquarters and its security system?" he would ask, deep down hoping that Axel had come across something in the past week.

Axel would shift his eyes over at the spiky blond before pushing his glasses up his nose "Well it was rather difficult with all of the firewalls and security precautions that Shinra has in their mainframe, but I was able to hack into one piece of information that might prove useful" he would say, catching the interest of all of the members in the room "I was able to get into the layout and schematics of the building, with that I can figure out all of the locations of the security triggers of the building" as he explained he pulled up a window on the monitor that showed a 3D image of Shinra Headquarters, which became transparent and showed a series of lines all across the building , giving off the impression that it had it's own nerve system.

Cloud looked over at the results of Axels findings, a small grin formed on his face "Perfect, that will definitely help us out when we are able to gain access into the building" a sense of enthusiasm filled him as their goal seemed to be even closer with this piece of newly acquired information.

Rem suddenly let out a small 'but' to catch the attention of the others as she had a piece of information to add to the meeting "that's good and all, but…well today I was going over our supply of Mako. The count is pretty low, maybe enough to last us for another week at the most if we're careful with it"  
The room was quite for a few seconds after Rems piece of information had been given, the silence being disrupted by Cloud who was contemplating the manner in his own head before making a decision.

"A run is needed I suppose before we can carry out any plans on attacking Shinra, agreed?" he said in a more questioning tone, wanting the agreement of the others before actually making the final decision.

"It looks as though they have increased the security of the Sector 3 reactor since our last harvesting, so going for the mako of that reactor might not be in our best interest" Axel would point out "Perhaps our best course of action would be going for the Sector 7 reactor since Shinra wouldn't expect us to go after the one furthest away from where we last attacked" he would suggest, but his idea was immediately shot down by Jeanne who let out a loud 'ha!'.

"Are you kidding me?! You seriously want to go into Sector 7? Even after that bear of a man and his crew of fuck ups made our experience there last time less than pleasant?" her words causing them all to remember how AVALANCHE had gotten in their way the last time they tried to get mako from the Sector 7 reactor.

AVALANCHE and their team of 5 had never seen eye to eye ever since they had met and AVALANCHE found out that they were more interested in taking over Shinra for its source of mako rather than taking the company down for good.

"Although it does seem like a good idea Axel, about going for the reactor that Shinra would less likely think we would go after, I would have to agree with Jeanne. Who's to say AVALANCHE won't get in the way again? We would have to pass through their turf if we wanted to get to the reactor" Rem would say with a contemplating look.

Axel looked at the others before giving a sigh, pushing his glasses up once again as they had fallen down his nose slightly "You all don't seem to think much of me and my intelligence do you?" he would say, causing curious expressions to form all around "I already made up a plan in case we were to go through the Sector 7 area again. Unlike the rest of you I make solutions to past problems in situations like this".

Jeanne would then grin widely before smacking his back with her palm, causing him to jerk forward and his glasses to slide down his nose once again "Well let's just hope it's a lot better than your last plan" she would say with her grin still on her face, a disapproving look on Axels as he looked over at her while he pushed his glasses up his nose.

"Alright, it's agreed then, we will put off the plan to attack Shinra Headquarters for now until we get a better supply of Mako. Then after that we'll come up with a plan, a plan that will finally get us our goal of taking over Shinra" Cloud would finalize the end of the meeting with the approving head nods of the others. Cloud had a good feeling about their plan, a feeling that made their goal seem closer than ever before.

Once silence filled the room once again, Clives eyes looked away from the ceiling and at the others around him, his cigarette practically burned out.

"Umm…what are we doing again?" he would ask with a confused expression, causing Jeanne to break out in a fit of laughter and Rem to frustratingly sigh out while rubbing her forehead.


	2. Chapter 2

Man you are gonna love this place! The drinks are alright but just you wait till you get a glance at the bartender, she's got the biggest.." a man in grungy looking clothes would tell his friend as they made their way down the dirt like road that lead through towards the more lively part of the sector 7 slums, going past an alley without noticing an annoyed looking Rem who glared at the men with crossed arms as she leaned against the brick wall.

"Fucking pervs" she muttered before turning her head to look back into the alley to see the others observing Axels laptop that rested on top of a closed off garbage bin.

"It looks like a pretty solid plan, but are you sure you and Rem can handle things on your own?" Cloud asked, his face showing more concern than his tone. Axel nodded in response without looking away from the monitor.

"Of course, Rem and I can handle getting into the reactor and extracting what we need. I have the plans of the facility memorized and know how to avoid all of the security triggers, we just need you three to distract AVALANCHE long enough for us to get to the train station" Axels explanation, along with his tone of confidence as he spoke of his plan did make Cloud feel a bit more at ease but he still had a lingering feeling of concern. Cloud had gone through enough in life to know that not all plans go as well as they were thought to be and precaution was always a must.

"No need to worry about our part nerd-o" Jeanne would say with a big grin on her face before she placed her hands behind her head "We can handle ourselves against ol'scruffy gun" she would then turn her attention to Rem with a big smile "Just make sure our little Axel doesn't screw anything up, he's still just a kid you know" she would say with a laugh, not noticing the glare that was thrown at her from the younger boy.

"You know Jeanne, it's your big mouth that will one day.." Axel would start to say before being cut off by Clive.

"I think it's time that we got started rather than bickering don't you think?" he would say to halt the two from furthering their argument, both giving looks as if they were about to say something but instead each gave a 'humph' and left it at that.

Walking up to Rem, who was uninterested by the younger members squabbling, had her attention had gone back to the street. Cloud stood beside her as he too looked around before speaking.

"If anything happens in the reactor that requires you to fall back, do it. We can always make another attempt at a different reactor later" he would say, his words causing Rem to look over at him with a raised brow and a slight smirk.

"You're talking like you don't have much trust in me, you know I hate it when you do that" her head giving a slight shake as she spoke "Don't worry about me and Axel, we'll get the job done and be back before you know it" her lips forming a small reassuring smile, one that Cloud had seen many times in the past and had always been a good sign of a mission going well.

The others would then make their way to meet the two at the entrance of the alley, Axel fighting a quiet struggle as he was trying to get out of a headlock that Jeanne had put him in as she ruffled his hair, Clive watching them as he knew that if he said anything to the dark haired girl it would just go upon deaf ears.

Figuring there was no time like the present Cloud looked over at Clive and Jeanne, signalling them to follow as he would make his way out of the alley in the direction of the bar that resided about two blocks away. Jeanne and Clive caught up to him so they all walked side by side. Cloud hearing a faint "Good luck Cloud" that was recognizably Rems voice; he returned her words with a backwards wave to her.

Out of the three who ventured further into the slums, it was Jeanne who seemed to be catching the attention of those who were loitering around the area. Not because of the fact that she was a woman, not because of the small skirt that she wore, but because of the artillery that she carried with her. Two straps were slung over her shoulders as to hold the two assault rifles under her arms that dangled at chest height, a long barrelled sniper rifle rested on her back and two hand guns latched to a belt that went around her waist with a small pink, ruined looking fanny pack that rested against her right hip. The other two men seemed to stick out less as Clouds sword that clung to his back and Clives twin dagger hilts dangled from the sides of his belt.

"So…how are we going to get their attention anyway?" Clive would ask with a glance over at Cloud. A question that Cloud even realized he hadn't even thought up a plan for.

"Well we could…" he started off before Jeanne excitedly cut into the conversation.

"Oh! I have a great idea!" she would say with a big grin before hurrying ahead of the two.

"You think it's wise to let her do whatever it is she's about to do?" Clive would ask as the two halted on the spot as they watched her, a look of uncertainty on both of their faces.

"I guess...we'll find out soon" Cloud would respond back, knowing fully well that there was no stopping her once she got her mind wrapped around something.

Coming to a stop only 30 yards from the bar, Jeanne reached into her fanny pack and had her hand tightly formed into a fist around a dark green object.

"Alright Avalanche! Time to come on out!" she would say out loud before throwing the object, one that made both Cloud and Clives eyes open with surprise before they both yelled out 'Jeanne! You idiot!' in sync with one another as they watched the grenade sore through the air and crash through the window of the Seventh Heaven bar. It was only a few seconds where complete silence had taken over as they waited for the reaction that would soon come from Jeannes straight forward attack. Instantly, the silence was over taken by screams and yells that came from inside the bar, a flood of people came rushing from the small doorway as people pushed and shoved their way out of the opening, trying to get away from the explosive before it could detonate.

Cloud and Clive merely watched, hoping that everyone would make it out of the bar before the bomb could explode since their initial intention of the plan had no desire of wanting to harm anyone in the process.

But something made Cloud tilt his head in curiosity, Jeanne was laughing at the site that she had created. Was she actually nuts? Was she nothing more than a psychopath who wanted nothing more than to cause destruction? These questions roamed through his mind before he realized something that made him shift his attention over back to Rem and Axel.

Even from where he stood, he could see Rem placing a hand over her face, possibly in frustration over Jeannes actions. But Axel seemed to have the same idea as Cloud did, watching the young boy tug on Rems arm and pointed to the crowd that ran towards the exit of the slums, the very exit that lead out to the street that would take them out to the trainyard.

The panicking crowd would make a good cover for the two to go to the trainyard in case Avalanche was observing the chaos, making it easier for the plan to unfold. Cloud watched as the two ran out into the crowd, a small sigh escaping his lips before his attention was brought back to the bar. A loud sudden yell come from inside the now empty bar, one that sounded rather familiar.

"Who the hell is throwing fake grenades into my bar?!" a woman's voice erupted out from the broken window and doors of the bar before the doors swung open, once more to have one last person come out.

It was hard to tell who is was from where Cloud was standing, the figure was rather slim looking and had haired that went down to the woman's rear. But something was very familiar about this woman, her voice being one that he thought he had heard many times before in his past.

"It was me, what are you gonna do about it? Huh?" Jeanne would say with her usual cocky attitude as she held her ground. Her expression suddenly becoming less confident as she moved off to the side to avoid the fake grenade that was hurled at her head by the woman which landed with a plastic 'clack' near Clouds foot. The sound of cracking knuckles filled the air around them as the woman did so to both of her fists as she made her way over to them. Clouds eyes widened a bit as the woman got closer, close enough for him to know exactly who it was.

"I am going to make you pay me every little gil that you cost me today with your little childish prank. With the amount of money I was going to get from all of those customers we could have had enough to pay our rent for the next two months! What gave you the right to.." she would trail off as her eyes now looked at the others who stood behind Jeanne, wondering who it was that was involved in this girls antics. But her eyes were then fixated on the spikey haired blonde that stood beside Clive, her feet stopping where they were now planted.

Her eyes blinked twice, as if to make sure that they were working properly before she spoke again.

"C..Cloud? Is that you?" she asked in an almost quiet tone but loud enough for everyone to hear. The tension that was filled the air moments ago had suddenly been dispersed and was replaced with confusion that spread out between the four.

The sight of Tifa made even Cloud want to crack a smile. He had always wondered if Tifa was alright from the incident back in Nibelheim. The memory of rushing into the Mt. Nibel reactor came to mind as he remembered seeing Sephiroth go through the doorway with the sign 'JENOVA' above it, seeing Tifa laying at the foot of the stairs with a large wound on the front of her body. At that moment he felt that he had failed to keep the promise that he made to her all of those years back at the water tower, how he promised to be there for her whenever she needed him.

And now there she stood only a few yards away, looking healthier than even as she looked at him with those familiar eyes. For a moment he caught himself with his jaw slightly open which was thankfully hidden behind his red scarf, him trying to find the right words to say to her.

'Don't stand there like an idiot! Say something!' a voice yelled out to him in his mind as he tried to figure out what to say. He wanted to tell her that he was relieved to know that she was alive and well, to ask where she had been all of this time. But instead he was only able to blurt out a less sensitive response.

"Tifa, where's Avalanche?" he asked in a questioning/interrogating tone, one that appeared to catch Tifa off guard and look at him with eyes that just shouted out to him 'did you miss me at all cloud? Aren't you happy to know I am ok?'

Giving it a second to sink in that she wasn't going to get a more friendlier response, Tifa let out a small sigh as she moved a few strand of hair away from her face and shifted them to behind her right ear. Her eyes now tried to focus on somewhere else, anywhere other than the childhood friend that stood before him.

"I..don't know what you're talking about Cloud" her tone being the same one that he knew all too well.

Back in the days of Nibelheim, Tifa would always lie about being ok. Whether it was about the death of her mother or just things that bothered her but didn't want to trouble others with. This made Cloud frown a bit before he started making his way over to her, stopping only a few feet away. He noticed that she hadn't changed much since he last saw her, other than the fact that she looked more mature, taller and her clothes were rather…skimpier than they used to be. He then saw her eyes focus back onto him once again.

"Tifa…we know Avalanche has their base here in Seventh Heaven, we just want to talk to them, that's all" his words made Tifa bite down on her lip as he could tell that the cogs in her mind were working away.

"They…" she just started to say with her hands grabbing onto one another behind her back. He could tell her comfortable level was sinking, perhaps because she didn't want to betray the group that she had been helping out but at the same time wanted to help the one childhood friend she thought she would never see again.

"They aren't here" she finally let out as she looked up at him once again. From behind Cloud, a loud "Bullshit!" came out from Jeanne who appeared from behind Clouds back and pointed one of her hand guns right at Tifa.

"Of course she's going to say they aren't here, Miss Mcboobington here will say anything to throw us off track! She's one of them!" Jeanne's gun was suddenly tugged upward as a hand came around and pulled it away from Jeanne. Seeing Clive standing behind her with his hand holding her gun, he gave a slight head shake with his usual calm look still on his face as he continued to puff away on his cigarette.

"Let's hear her out first before you go pumping her full of holes kiddo" he would say in a monotone like voice.

Jeanne gave Tifa a glare as she let out a frustrated sigh and backed off, giving Clive a somewhat hard punch to his side "Spoilsport" she would say, his face not showing any form of pain from her fist.

Cloud never took his eyes off of Tifa, he could tell that when she told them that Avalanche wasn't there that she was telling the truth.

"If they aren't here, where are they?" he asked with his voice less demanding than it was in his previous question.

Tifa gave another bite of her lip, from her arm movement he could tell that her hands were fumbling with each other as she contemplated on what to say next.

"The..sector seven reactor, they are leaving on the train that just left a minute ago" her glance then went down, an obvious look of guilt on her face that Cloud guessed came from the fact that she was ratting out the group that she supported.

At her words, the three others suddenly realized what that meant, their expressions were a mix of surprise and fear.

Cloud quickly brought his hand up to his ear to tap a small communicator that rested inside his ear canal, waiting to hear a small beep to confirm that it had been turned on. "Axel? Axel! Are you there?" he would question as fear started to come over him, hoping to hear a response back.

"Yes..I am here" Axel's voice filled his ears from the communicator but sounded as though the boy was talking rather quietly.

"Axel, Avalanche is on the train with you, you have to.." his instructions were then interrupted by the voice coming from the other end of the communicator.

"We know Cloud" Rems voice would cut in, sounding just as quiet as Axels but also with a sense of uneasiness in her tone.

"They are in the cart with us"

Suddenly, a loud voice boomed into his ear over the communicator, one that was neither Axels nor Rems, a deeper toned voice that sounded more distant than the others.

"Don't start slacking now! Tonight's tha night we stick it to that Fuckin Shinra, once and fer all!" the recognizable, burly voice of the leader of Avalanche faintly roared over the communicator


	3. Chapter 3

Lights quickly flickered through the windows of the train cart as it sped down the tracks; the dimly lit cart had only a few occupants who were gathered near the front door that lead into the next train cart. A half naked, tied up unconscious figure laid on the seats in the middle.

"Alright, so all we have to do to avoid detection is have the security card swiped at each check point" the brunette would explain to the other three, whipping the ends of her red bandana off to the side of her head.

"Biggs, that's where you will come in" her attention now over to the Shinra uniformed Biggs. A look of pure discomfort formed on his face as he tried to shift the uniform to make it a bit more comfortable, trying to pull at the neck hole of the shirt as it was a few sizes too small.

"Yeah I got it, swipe the card and keep in site of the guards in the other carts" he stopped his pulling to say with a slight nod before continuing to achieve his goal of stretching the neck hole.

"That's right! Now don't any of you go fuckin this up, got it?" the large man with the machine gun grafted arm growled with his usual commanding tone as he crossed his arms "Took a lot of plannin to get us this far and we can't have any slip ups! We gonna blow up that damn reactor and give Shinra a taste of what's to come if they keep tryin to kill the planet" said Barret before letting himself plop down heavily onto the seat behind him, letting himself relax before looking at the others "Well sit yer ass's down! We got a long ride and there's no point standin around lookin all stressed out" he said with an annoyed look. Jesse sat down on the seats opposite of Barret while Biggs kept his position of standing in the middle of the hallway, trying to look his best like a Shinra guard.

"Wha the? Wedge! What the fuck is wrong with you?" Barret would growl as he watched the somewhat pudgy man dance around on the spot.

"I..gotta use...the bathroom" Wedge would say with much strain in his voice as he continued to dance around slightly, a sight that seemed to be getting on Barrets nerves.

"Then go the fuck to the bathroom then, you're not a little kid who needs his mum to take you, are you?" he would say as he pointed to his left him with his thumb to the two bathrooms that resided in the back of the cart. Without another word, Wedge sped waddled down the small hallway. Jesse giving a slight giggle while Biggs tried to continue to look like a Shinra guard on duty, a quiet 'God damn it' coming from Barret who looked out the window at the buildings rushing by the train.

Once at the wooden style doors of the washrooms Wedge tried to open the door but to his disappointment he found that it was locked.

"Oh come on!" he would mutter out loud before hearing a the feint voice of a boy coming from behind the door, the only word being said was 'occ..occupied'.

He would then turn to the other bathroom door that was directly opposite of the occupied one, only to find that it was also locked.

"Hey! Someone's in here!" a female voice came from behind the doorway, causing Wedge to let out a loud frustrated groan as he continued to dance.

"Well..how much longer are you going to be? I gotta go bad!" Wedge asked, hoping to hear that it wouldn't be much longer.

"I…I am not sure, I might be in here for a while….had some bad food earlier" Rem would inform him as she tried to come up with a reason for taking up her hiding spot till the train would reach its destination but also held back from laughing as she found her excuse to be mildly entertaining.

She pressed up her ear to the door gently to listen, hearing the door leading to the next cart opening and closing. Guessing that the man wanting the bathroom went to the next cart to see if the bathrooms in there were not being used, Rem let out a small sigh of relief before leaning against the small sink placing her finger to the communicator in her ear.

"Hey Axel, you doing ok over there?" her concern for him was starting to grow. Axel was never the one to be on the front line with the others. He was usually back at the base instructing the others on directions or hacking into security systems to help them along with their missions

"I am fine Rem, no need to worry" Axels voice came over the speaker, sounding rather calm and cool for someone who was stuck in a bathroom with the enemy on the other side of the doorway

"So..what should we do? Do you have anything planned for something like this?" she asked, hoping that he did have a plan for a situation like this one. There was a brief pause from Axels end, the kind of silence that already told Rem his answer, one that wasn't good. "To be honest..I hadn't planned on Avalanche being on the train with us. The likelihood of them going to the reactor the exact time we were was very minimal. Perhaps not taking this into account of such a result was a mistake on my end" Axel pushed his glasses up his nose as he peered down at the briefcase that he had brought along with him, a frown on his face as he became quiet.

"Well you can't predict everything Axel, if you could then life would be pretty boring wouldn't it?" Rem pointed out before looking into the mirror above the sink. Seeing that her hair had gotten messed up during their run with the large mob of people earlier, she used her fingers to comb through her red hair to make herself more presentable.

"All we can do is ride the train till we get to the reactor, from there we'll wait till they leave and then we'll make our way to the reactor. I am sure your excellent plans of the reactor will get us to the main room before Avalanche does" she knew that such praise on Axels plans always lifted his spirits and she knew that it was something that he needed at the moment.

"Of course" was all that came back through the communicator, his tone definitely sounding a bit more upbeat than it was a few moments ago. The sound of the train cart door opening and closing was heard by the duo, followed by a 'phew' coming from Wedge as his footsteps passed by their doors and became distant as he rejoined the other members of Avalanche.

"I guess…they're on their own?" Jeanne would ask worryingly as she looked over at Cloud, the look of deep concern on his expression. He knew that Rem and Axel could definitely handle themselves in the reactor against the Shinra guards, but adding Avalanche to the mix made him think that the chances of success were now slim to none if Avalanche were to meet up with them during the extraction.

Tifa had invited the trio into her bar after the incident of the bar being cleared out and being informed of what was going on and the predicament they were in. After locking the door to the bar to prevent further customers from coming in, she walked over to the table that they sat at and stood directly across from Cloud. Having the three of them sitting in her bar did feel a bit strange to her, them being the very group that Avalanche had been enemies with for the past few months now.

But she never expected Cloud, the same Cloud that would try to spend time with her back in Nibelheim when they were children, and the same Cloud that promised to be there for her whenever she needed him to be, to be the leader of such a group. But the fact that Cloud was the one leading the group made it easier for her to accept the group into her bar though, even after the stunt that Jeanne had pulled earlier which lost her some much business.

"Sure seems that way" Clive would respond to Jeannes question as his eyes were fixated on the ceiling above, as if he found something interesting to look at that no one else could see.

"There are no other trains going to the Sector Seven reactor till that one returns and there is no other way to get there" his attention was then brought to Cloud "What do you think boss? Think they'll be alright?"

Clouds expression told the others that he was still deep in his own thought at the moment; a look on his face like everything else in the world was shut out to him. He tried picturing the scene in his mind, the almost empty train cart with their enemies in it and both Axel and Rem trying their best to keep hidden till the ride was over.

"Well..they should be alright as long as they keep hidden till the train gets to the reactor. Axel said he has plans of the reactor that would let them slip by security and get to the mako room without detection" his hand then went up to his chin in a thinking manner, the look in his eye showing that he had just realized something "Actually..maybe this isn't such a bad thing.." his words causing the others to look at him with a look of surprise.

"Not a bad thing?! Are you nuts Cloud? How are having four members of Avalanche getting in our way a good thing?" Jeanne asked harshly before Clive gave a wave of his hand to silence her.

"Think about it Jeanne. You really think Avalanche is going to be as quiet and stealthy as Rem and Axel?" Clive would point out, a confused look still on the younger girls face.

"No they're going to go in and cause a ruckus, taking out any guard that comes across their path. With that they'll get the whole facility focused on them while a clear path is made for Axel and Rem. They'll get what they need from the mako room and leave without even being noticed"

Cloud would nod his head in agreement "Yeah that's what I am thinking too, have the two enemies distract one another while we get what we need.."

Before anyone else could add another word, the sound of Tifa clearing her throat caught their attention, a look of annoyance on her face as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Excuse me…but I too am a part of Avalanche if you have already forgotten. You think I am just going to stand here while you talk about using them like a…a human shield for your plans?" her brows furrowing as she spoke with an irate tone.

Cloud didn't want to say it directly to her, but he knew that he and the others could care less for the well being of Avalanche considering the fact that the two groups were always fighting each others causes.

"They went to the reactor knowing fully well of the dangers that such an attack has and if they decide to alert Shinra of their presence then that's their problem. We devised a plan that would cause no harm to anyone and Avalanche definitely wasn't part of it" his words coming out strict as his eyes met with hers "If they get hurt in the process then that's on them for being reckless"

Tifa opened her mouth to retort back with something, anything that would possibly make Cloud call his team members and have them help out Barret and the others. But her mind drew a blank. She knew that they had no reason to help Avalanche and it would be too big of a request, even to a childhood friend. Out of frustration Tifa walked over to behind the bar and started to put the almost empty liquor bottles back up onto the display behind the counter.

"I..just…when are you and Barret going to grow up already and stop this bickering?!" she would say out loud for everyone to hear as she continued to keep herself busy. Jeanne looked as though she was holding back from laughing, afraid that if even one snicker were to leave her she would definitely get it from the furious woman. The room was quiet in awkwardness till Tifa turned around holding a rather dirty looking cloth to clean the counter, slamming her fist down heavily upon it.

"Why are you even breaking into these reactors? What purpose do you have trying to take over Shinra?! Don't you know what they did to our hometown? What they're doing to the world itself?" her questions filled with anger. Her questions caused the expressions of the trio to become more serious, even Jeannes hidden giggles were instantly halted and replaced with the same look of seriousness

Everyone being quiet was a silence that Tifa did not want. She wanted answers; she wanted to know why her friend wanted to take over a company that she despised more than anything else in the world.

Clive looked at the others before looking over at Tifa, taking the almost burnt out cigarette out of his mouth and smothered it against the ashtray that lay in the middle of the table before giving a basic answer to her question "Because if we don't, we'll die"


	4. Chapter 4

A loud metallic screech filled the air as the wheels of the train grinded against the tracks, sparks erupting from the metal against metal friction till the locomotive came to a complete stop. The sound of hissing steam took the previous noises as the doors to the carts opened to allow its passengers out. Standing on the train station platform were three Shinra guards, their eyes from behind their visors were watching observantly at the very small crowd of people exited from the transport in the search for any suspicious characters that would dare to try and sneak by them.

One guard let his body relax after noticing that the carts were empty and the doors were beginning to close to the train. But his reaction time wasn't quick enough to prepare himself for the gatling gun that came out from inside the cart closest to him and held in the doorway, halting the mechanical doors from completely shutting.

The guard would open his mouth to yell out to the other two guards to warn them of the newly discovered threat that came with the train, but the overly large gun began to fire away at the unprepared soldier. The other two guards instantly looked over at where the gun fire had come from and raised their weapons, beginning their return fire at the doorway in hopes of hitting the target behind the metal door. The guard furthest away from where the enemy was thought to be let out a gurgled yell before falling to the pavement with a large hunting knife protruding from the back of his neck, blood spilling out from his open mouth.

Turning around after hearing the loud thud from behind, the last guard had a look of fear and nervousness on his face as he realized that he was all alone against an enemy that seemed to be picking them off effortlessly. Without warning, the feeling of a strong impact against the side of his head was felt, his body becoming weightless which slammed against the brick wall beside him, knocking him completely unconscious.

Standing above the crumpled figure, Biggs rubbed his hand as he looked down at the soldier, making sure that he wasn't going to be getting back up anytime soon. The doors of the train cart opened up from where the large weapon had been protruding from to have Barret, Wedge and Jesse make the appearance out onto the platform.

"Well so far so good" Jesse said as she looked down at the results of Barrets and biggs handy work "We haven't triggered any alarms yet so they don't know we're here yet" Barret gave a low grunt in disapproval.

"Who cares? I say bring em on! The more Shinra assholes we take out, the better" his words causing the others to frown slightly as they knew what was to come of this mission when Barret was in this kind of mood.

"Come on now! Lets blow this god damn reactor up and save the planet!" his booming voice roared before his large figure took off towards the exit of the small train station, the others following behind in a less enthusiastic manner.

Back inside of the train, the bathroom door on the left opened up slightly to have Rem poke her head out to check to see if the coast was clear. Her eyes looked around at the seats in the cart and saw that no one else remained inside; she reached over and knocked on the other bathroom door.

"Axel, it's all clear" she informed before leaving her hiding spot and stretched her arms up towards the ceiling as she walked down the hallway "God damn, I never want to ride like that again. My whole body is as stiff as a board" she complained as Axel appeared from his own hiding quarters.

"Well just be thankful the facilities weren't used previously, it could have been worse" Axel pointed out, Rem guessing that this was supposed to be a bit of his sense of humor.

"Yeah thank God for that" she replied as she watched the young boy place his briefcase on one of the passenger seats and open the latches.

Inside of the large case was a set of blocky looking gloves and boots, completely made of metal and machine components.

"Well now that Avalanche has decided to go on their rampage, it's best that we leave now before they arrive first to the mako filtering room. If they actually make it to the room first, then we won't have any chance to get the mako we need" his explanation went on as he put the gloves and boots on, the ends of them reaching up to his elbows and knees. The boots added at least two more inches to the boy when it came to height and the site of him donning the equipment was seen as quite ridiculous by the others due to the fact that they were so bulky compared to his size but they knew to hold their tongues when it came to Axels invention as it was the very instrument that they needed to get the mako that they required and was also considered a very powerful weapon when used.

"Alright, well where do we go from here boss?" Rem now giving a small smile as she teased him, a look of what she thought was disapproval was thrown at her but quickly changed to a very small grin.

Axel walked out from the same doorway that Avalanche had left through only moments ago, his eyes scanning around at their surroundings of the train platform with Rem following right behind him. His metallic boots thudded against the pavement as he walked but not as loudly as most would think. The entire group had no idea what Axel used to make his weapons, figuring he must have used some kind of light metal since he was able to lift both his arms and legs so easily with such bulky and heavy looking equipment.

"Come on, we have to go this way" he instructed as he walked over to the exit that Avalanche had taken to get to the reactor. Rem gave a small frown as she wondered if it was such a good idea to follow the same path that the group of four had just gone down.

"Are you sure.." her words were then cut off by Axel who only looked over at her with a raised brow, a look that he usually gave that told others 'are you questioning my logic?' Rem let out a sigh as she shrugged in defeat.

"Alright then Axel, if you're sure" her words obviously failing to catch his attention as he had already started walking up the stairs that would lead them away from the station.

Sticking to the shadows, Rem and Axel eventually caught up to Avalanche, taking up a hiding spot behind the wall of an office building to keep their presence unknown to Avalanche. Barret, Biggs and Wedge kept watch of the surrounding area for any Shinra guards who would happen to come across them while Jesse worked at a computer panel next to the metallic door that prevented them from getting to the reactor.

The two continued to watch, Jesse obviously having a hard time coming up with the right code to open the door.

"I swear…this has to be the right code" her hand would ruffle her brown hair in frustration before continuing on. Axel let out a small sigh before looking down at the glove on his left arm. A small panel flipped up on the back of the hand to reveal a blue glowing monitor, his fingers typing quickly on the touch screen at a rate that even Rem found hard to follow.

Suddenly the panel that Jesse was working on gave a loud 'Beep!' before turning green, the large doors finally opening up slowly to give the awaiting people access to the other side. Jesse stood up straight with an accomplished look on her face "There! I knew I was right" she said proudly before the four would take off towards the reactor.

"Idiot" Axel would mutter, only noticing a second later that Rem had already taken off towards the open doorway when Avalanche was too far off in the distance to notice them. It took Axel a bit to catch up to the red head as they continued to keep within the shadows.

Rem was suddenly stopped by the feeling of a push against her stomach, looking down to see Axels robotic right arm against her midsection to halt her.

"Hey what are you doing?" she asked quietly, watching now as the four figures disappeared into a doorway that led further into the reactor. Axel shook his head before pointing to a wall vent to their left.

"Through that doorway there is…" his words were cut off by a loud alarm that could be heard through the entire complex, a thunderous "God fucking damn it!" from Barret could be heard even from where the two stood. Rem then turned to look at Axel with a frown

"Probably a good idea to go with your way"

After breaking the grill off of the vent Axel led the way through the vent as he followed the directions that he had made earlier that day that displayed on the monitor of his glove with Rem crawling not too far behind him. The sound of the alarm could still be heard as it echoed through the small vent but grew fainter and fainter as they continued on.

A small whimper came from behind Axel, a sound that made him stop to look behind him "What's wrong?" he asked with an impatient tone.

"I…I don't like small spaces" Rem admitted with a small blush of embarrassment on her face as she looked down to avoid eye contact. Not saying a word, Axel turned back to look ahead of himself and continued to follow the navigation on his screen. Rem raised a brow.

"Well excuse me" she muttered before following after him, the look of nervousness still on her face.

Rem gave a small sigh of relief after Axel had led them to the grill of a vent that would take them out of the confined space, a loud metal against metal bang filling the room as Axels gloved hand punched the grill with enough force rip it off of the wall. Emerging from the tiny opening, Axel and Rem stood up and brushed off the dust that they gathered on themselves from their voyage through the ducts, both now looking around to see that Axels directions led them straight to the largest room of the building which was actually one room away from their destination, the doorway leading to the mako room only a few feet away to their left.

"Come on, we're almost there" Axel said before walking over to the door.

He placed his hand on the door to push it open but stopped and looked over at Rem before opening it.

"How are you with heights?" his brow rose curiously, Rem gave the blond boy an annoyed look as her hands were placed on her hips.

"Hey just because I have a….slight problem with small spaces it doesn't mean I am afraid of everything you know" her expression not changing even after Axel gave a shrug which was followed by a "just checking"

Once in the room Rem could see why Axel asked her if she had a problem with heights.

They were high up above what seemed like a large room about the width of the building and had no bottom except for the large pool of mako that resided below about 200 yards down.

"Just watch your step" Axel added before making his way across the platform that led to the only ladder that leads down to the lowest platform of the room.

"You know…you're a lot braver than I thought, Axel" her compliment only being acknowledged by a slight nod of his head followed with a "mmhmm".

Rem had never been on a mission with Axel before since he was usually back at the base giving them directions over the communicator or was working alongside Cloud. She had always figured him to be person who wanted to do nothing more than do the planning. But the way he was handling this mission made her start to think that perhaps he was more resourceful than most would give him credit for.

Step by step the two climbed down the ladder towards the glowing chemical below, the light that irradiated from it was getting brighter and brighter with each step they took. After what felt like a half hour of climbing, they finally reached the bottom platform, the metal surface only a few meters above the pool of green liquid

"Alright, I'll do the extracting while you keep guard" Axel instructed before pressing on the small screen of his glove. He then extended his arms out over the railing of the walkway and spread his fingers out to as far as they could. The tips of the robotic fingers opened up to allow clear tubes to slide out from each finger and descend down into the mako pool. The gloves started to give off a small motor like noise before the tubes sucked the energy which showed as the tubes gave off a light glow, the mako traveling from the pool to ten small glass containers that were safely held inside the compartments of the gloves.

"It should take..2 minutes before the process is complete" he informed her as his focus was on the monitor, watching for the acknowledgement of the process being complete.

Placing her hand on the sword hilt that was latched to the side of her belt, she readied herself for anyone or anything that would come along to halt them from obtaining their goal. The large room was rather quiet; the only sound being made was a low hum that came from the reactor itself. Not once did Rems hand leave her weapon while Axel continued with the extraction, failure in this mission was not an option to her as it was crucial that they get what they needed. Not just because it was the very thing that they needed to live but also because Cloud put a lot of trust in her, one of the things that she valued the most.

Her attention was then brought to Axel as she heard the sound of the extracting tubes start to whir back into their compartments in his gloves. To confirm that they got what they needed, Axel opened up the compartments in the gloves to reveal the ten glass vials that resided inside, each one filled completely with the energy they came for.

"Mission accomplished?" Rem asked with a smile on her lips, feeling more at ease now that the hard part of the mission was over and all they had to do now was escape through the same passage that they took to get to where they were. Axel nodded his head in confirmation before closing the compartments on his gloves again.

"Yes I think we got a sufficient amount. Lets head back to the others" even he too seemed to be more relaxed after seeing the fruits of their labor.

After climbing all the way back up the 200 yard ladder with Rem up ahead of Axel, she pushed herself up onto the metal floor once completing the climb and laid on her back as she breathed heavily with her eyes closed.

"Next time we do this...Clive is coming with you while I stay behind" she joked before opening her eyes to find herself staring into the barrels of a large gun that was aimed right down at her only a few inches away from her face.

"You'd be pretty damn lucky if you even get another fucking chance Red" growled the of the bear like leader of Avalanche.


	5. Chapter 5

"To...live?" the confused black haired beauty repeated back to the three after Clive gave her a simple answer to her questions, an answer that only created even more questions to form in the mind of Tifa.

"I don't understand, what do you mean you need..." her next string of words were suddenly cut off by a frustrated sigh that came from the twin pigtailed girl who lifted her head from resting on her arms. Jeanne lifted her gaze up so that her eyes would meet with Tifas, a sense of hostility felt from her hazel eyes.

"Geez, did the overcompensation on your breasts make up for the lack of brains you got there lady?" Jeanne grinned slightly at the reaction on Tifas face, quickly speaking once again before the older woman could retort back.

"It's pretty simple to figure out if you use your head, a group of people who are fighting for mako...mako to live...got it yet?" she went on speaking with a smug look on her face. Tifa couldn't even get in a word, a look of fury on Tifas face as she was starting to get very annoyed with how she was being spoken to in her own bar.

"What gives you the right to..." she was cut off yet again but this time by Cloud, obviously wanting to stop the explosion of verbal destruction that was about to happen.

"We're mako dependent Tifa" he informed her calmly. Tifa opened her mouth as she still stared at Jeanne, wanting to give the teen a good talking to about how to speak to others. But she stopped herself when hearing Clouds voice speak up, his words clicked something in her head, enough to make her draw her attention to the blond haired man.

"Mako...dependent? I still don't understand..." Tifa blinked her eyes curiously as she still had no idea what was being told to her, this need for mako energy being nothing more than pure gibberish to her. But the way Cloud was talking to her, she could tell that it was indeed a serious manner.

Cloud shifted slightly in his chair, making himself comfortable as he knew that this explanation might take a while to make his old childhood friend understand the situation they were in.

"The five of us have gone through hell and back to get to where we are today Tifa" he then gave the other two a look to see if they showed any sign of disapproval of him telling this new acquaintance of their troubles and past, but Clive seemed to be off in his own little world again as he was staring up at the ceiling with the oh so common absent look on his face and Jeanne merely sat back against her chair again and lower her head back down to rest upon her arms, as if prepping herself for a long nap.

"Back in Nibelheim, when me and Sephiroth came to check out the reports of the number of monsters showing up around the area...well I am sure you know about that part since you were there" he said with a small shrug. A look of surprise had come to Tifas face, perhaps she was just thrown off by the fact that he would bring up such a horrible memory right off the bat. But it was more of a 'how did you know?' kind of look. Deciding to ignore the reaction he had gotten, he pressed on with his story.

"After I found you injured in the reactor and defeated Sephiroth, I blacked out and found myself in a lab under the Shinra mansion. Somehow I was able to get myself out of there and reach Midgar, that part is too fuzzy to remember" as Cloud went on Tifa's eyes showed that her mind was taking all of this in, her bottom lip being bitten as if trying to hold her tongue.

"During my time in the lab, Shinra...did something to me, perhaps they experimented on my body while I was unconscious...I am not too sure. But I know that ever since that day I woke up in that mako filled prison, I had become dependent on substance" the words causing his face to frown slightly "My body cannot live without a certain amount of mako energy, the very energy that Shinra creates within the reactors"

Tifa didn't know what to say, her feelings were starting to mix up inside of her but she wasn't sure which one to let out in front of anyone. She felt her eyes beginning to sting as she held back her tears, picturing everything that Cloud had just told her in her mind. Her hands tightened into fists as anger also started to build up within her, the anger that she had towards the company for burning down her hometown and killing her friends and family. Now there was one new thing to add to her list of reasons to hate Shinra, her hate for putting Cloud in the state he was in. If it weren't for them and their experimentation on humans he wouldn't have to be so dependent on the very company that made him the way he was now.

The others stayed in silence as they could tell the barkeeper was searching her feelings, even Jeanne stayed quiet as she knew now wasn't the time for a smart alack comment to provoke her. Giving Tifa a few seconds to take all of this in and relax herself, Cloud then spoke up again to put an end to the awkward silence.

"Jeanne over there" he started, nodding his head over in Jeanne's direction "she lived in Junon with her parents and her brother, both parents being Shinra guards who were stationed in the city at the time. They were killed after being sent to the war in Wutai, her brother following in the footsteps of becoming a Shinra guard and suffering the same fate" he said as his blue eyes shifted over to Jeanne, seeing her already starting to nod off.

"Soon after she was taken from her home since she was not able to make any payments on the home she lived in" Clouds eyes didn't leave the girl as he spoke, her attention seeming to be else where, possibly trying to inconspicuously block out the story he told.

"They took her back to Midgar and was sent to Hojo to be used in his experiments, pretty much the same one that I had gone through in Nibleheim. Once she was deemed a failure in Hojo eyes they cast her out into the slums" his words were suddenly followed by the sound of leather tightening could be heard from Tifa as her balled fists tightened even more from hearing Jeanne's story. The question of 'When will Shinra stop going so far?' entered her mind before her body relaxed once again. Her eyes shifted up from the table to look at the others, Cloud being the only one looking at her while Clive was still gazing at the ceiling above while Jeanne had taken on the time passing task of taking a pretzel from a bowl that was in the middle of the table, flicking it at the absent minded Clive who caught it instantly without looking away from the ceiling.

"pff...kill joy" Jeanne would mutter before looking over at Tifa, seeing the look of discomfort on her face. Jeanne then tilted her seat back in a lazily fashion with her arms behind her head.

"Clive has a similar story actually; both his parents were highly skilled doctors who lived in Midel. After hearing Midgar was in need of doctors they moved here and opened up a clinic in the sector 2 slums. Around that time there was a huge fight between Shinra and some mercenary groups, ones similar to Avalanche. Clive's parents took in patients no matter who they were so when Shinra got wind of some of their patients being those of the rebels, they labelled his parents as supporters of the rebellion against the company. They sent the Turks to the clinic to till his parents and burn down the building as an example of what was in stored for those who opposed the company. Clive was found in an alley nearby, said his parents knew about the approaching guards and told him to leave through the back door and not to come back in no matter what he saw. They took him back to Shinra headquarters where he became a test subject for Hojo" Cloud stopped to take a break, seeing Tifa now covering her move as she was at a loss for words.

"But as you can see I survived, so don't go shedding any tears over me alright?" Clive piped up as the others looked over at him, seeing that his eyes were now focused on Tifa. His lips formed a small smile when he saw Tifa give him a concerned look before he drew his attention back up at the ceiling.

After hearing their stories, Tifa sat there quietly as she looked down at the table as if she had more of an interest in it than in the others who sat before her.

"But..." Tifa spoke up again with a concerned look on her face "you do realize what will happen if those reactors continue to drain the planet of its lifestream don't you? Someday they will kill the planet and..." she was then cut off by Jeanne who removed her arms from behind her head.

"So what you're asking us to do is give up on our lives then?" Jeanne said with a raised brow, a hint of disapproval in her tone.

"No! That's not what I am saying" a slightly angered Tifa would retort back before standing up "I just...there has to be another way, a way for you to get what you need and not have Shinra continue to suck the life out of the planet" her eyes then moved around between the three, as if hoping one would come up with an answer to her plea. But her words were only answered with silence as the room started to feel alot gloomier. Knowing that no one would have an answer to her question, she sat down in her chair once again in defeat.

"Tifa...we tried to come up with other solutions, many many times. But there is no other way" Clive finally spoke up as his attention was brought back to the bartender "Us using the company reactors is the only way for us to live"

This was alot for the woman to take in, Cloud could tell. Even just thinking about her situation started to make him feel sorry for his childhood friend. To be on a side where she had made friends and fought for a cause, only to have an old friend from her past come into her life once again to tell her that he is her enemy now and fighting the very cause that she fights for.

The sound of wood scrapping against wood filled the room as Cloud got up from his own chair, letting out a small sigh as he rubbed the back of his head "We should be heading out, Axel and Rem should be back any minute now with the mako if they were successful" his words signalling to the others to do the same as him. He then looked down at Tifa who had her face buried in her hands, obviously stressing herself out over the topics previously discussed.

A gloved hand was placed on her shoulder as Cloud tried to relax her, wanting to say something to put her mind at rest but knew that with where she was in all of this, it was almost impossible for someone in that kind of situation to be calm minded.

Her hands left her face slightly as she felt his hand leave her shoulder and heard the thudding of his large boots walk across the floor towards the doors that would lead out to the slums of Sector 7. She watched as the three left behind the swinging doors, leaving her to simmer in the new information that made her start to question things, things she thought she knew was right.

"You sure it's alright that you told her all of that? She is aligned with Avalanche" Clive would ask as he lit a fresh new cigarette while walking next to Cloud, the blond sword wielder shook his head.

"What I told her is not much more than what Avalanche already knows, they probably didn't tell her anything because they knew it would only complicate things and possibly make her turn sides. But..." a grin formed on his lips "Knowing her, she'll be fine"

Clouds words were suddenly cut short as a noise that filled all three of their ears, the sound of their ear communicators activating along with the familiar voice of Axel coming from the other end.

"Cloud, come in Cloud, can you hear me?" Axel's voice would yell out, followed by the sound of multiple gunshots.

"Axel?! What's going on? Are you and Rem alright?" Cloud asked demandingly as he stopped on the spot. There was a short pause before the young boys voice could be heard again.

"We acquired the mako, but Avalanche has cut us off from our exit. Cloud, they set the bomb already and..." his voice then drowned out by the heavy sound of static, leaving the three members in nothing more than a dreading silence.


	6. Chapter 6

A bead of sweat trickled down Rems forehead as she stared up at the gun barrel that was pointed directly at her forehead, the pissed off expression of Barret looking down at her was found to be more frightening than the gun itself. She remained quiet as she laid still, her attention only being drawn away from the threat above her by the sound of multiple foot steps getting closer till they came to a stop only a few feet away.

"B..Bar..boss, take it easy, you know I can't run all that well" Wedge panted out heavily before he leaned forward and placed his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. The next one to speak was Jesse, she also trying to catch her breath but not as badly as the pudgy Wedge.

"Is that….that's Rem isn't it?" she would ask in an interested tone as she walked closer to the two, her hand reaching for the small pistol that was attached to the side of her belt as her eyes darted around. "We better be careful, the rest of them might be close by" Jesse cautioned to the others who all nodded in agreement as Biggs drew out a pistol and knife while Wedge merely looked around fearfully.

A cold sensation filled the side of Rems cheek as Barret pressed his gatling gun against her skin threateningly before speaking out to her in a demanding tone.

"I heard ya talkin to someone jus a minute ago, where are they?" Barret growled as he spoke. Rems eyes looked up at his, trying to hide the sense of confusion that they might have been giving off. Hadn't they known Axel was there with her?

"I….I was talking to them on the communicator, I came alone" she lied without showing hesitation in her tone. She could only hope that where ever Axel was, he would keep to where he was till either she was able to get out of the situation she was in or if out of some miracle they had gotten help from someone.

"Yer Lyin" he said angrily as he pressed his large weapon against her cheek a bit more forcefully, her face wincing slightly as it started to hurt. Barret then looked over at the others without taking his arm grafted weapon away from Rems face.

"Go take a look over at the ladder from where she came from, fuckin rats might still be down there" he commanded, Biggs jerking a nod over at Wedge who gave a quick head shake.

"Wh..why me?!" he exclaimed, his question only getting a slight shrug from Biggs.

"Don't worry, if there are more of them down there I'll have your back" Biggs would reassure him, but Wedge still gave a slight sigh.

"Yeah…after I get my head blow off that is" he muttered before making his way over to the opening that led to the ladder. Rem had a hesitant look on her face as she watched the slightly obese man walk over to the opening, worrying that Axel was still on the ladder, waiting for the right opportunity to emerge and would now be caught.

Wedge glanced down the hole, his eyes shifting around at the site below before looking back up at the others with a small look of relief on his face "No one else is down there boss" he would inform before making his way back to the others.

"Well looks like you're a lot fucking smarter than I gave ya credit for girly, you at least know when ter tell tha truth when yer supposed to" Barret said with a grin before taking his gun away from her face. He then reached down and grabbed her by the scruff of her shirt, lifting her up so that her feet dangled at least a foot off of the metallic ground.

"Unfortunately for you though, the truth still won't save ya" he said before aiming his gun at her chest, right where her heart was.

Rem felt the sense of fear flooding over her. Her mind told her body to react, just do anything to prevent this man from killing her. But the fear of seeing this gigantic man only seconds away from putting a bullet through her heart prevented her now paralyzed body from doing anything.

Underneath the platform, Axel let out a small groan as he dangled from the bottom of the flooring that Barret and the others stood on. His robotic hands were magnetically stuck against the platform only a few feet from where the ladder he climbed up was.

"That was rather close" he thought to himself after seeing the shadow of Wedge disappear from the opening. He then started to use the magnets in his gloves to travel across the bottom of the metallic floor towards the edge of the platform, hearing the statement from above that their captive was about to be killed.

"Rem…" he muttered quietly as all he could feel at the moment was a sense of dread at the thought of losing one of the few people that he actually tolerated, one of the few people that he had actually come to label as a friend.

Knowing what needed to be done to save her, he demagnetized one of his gloves and reached down to press a small button on each boot. A small hum began to emanate from them followed by the sound of air being inhaled through the small vents on the back of them. With his free hand he reached at the edge of the platform and grabbed on, his other hand also demagnetizing to allow himself to dangle from the flooring from just his grip alone. He then reached up with his free hand to press a button on his other glove, the same hum and air sucking noise coming from the glove as the boots had done.

Jesse looked away from the scene of Barret holding Rem up, being one to not like such brutal sights such as this while the other two merely shifted their eyes to look away. But right as soon as Barret would say 'say good-bye Red', the sound of something heavy hitting the platform to his right halted him.

Barret turned his head in time to see the lab coat covered boy standing meters away from him, a look of pure anger was emanating in Axels eyes behind the square framed glasses. Barret raised a brow in interest as his attention was no longer on Rem.

"Hey kid! Where the hell did ya come from?!" Barret would demand before feeling a hard impact against the side of his head. Rem had taken the opportunity to land a hit against the larger mans head with her foot, kicking off his chest with her other foot once she felt his grip loosen on her.

"Now Axel!" she yelled out before landing on the floor. Before the others could react, Axel started running towards the leader of Avalanche and once he came to the half way point from where he stood before and where Barret was, his boots let out a loud boom as the air that was built up inside of them had exploded out against the floor beneath him. His body shot forward with intensity and speed, causing him to look like nothing more than a white blur to everyone else. When within striking distance of the dumbfounded Barret, Axel's glove gave the same boom noise that his boots did a second earlier, landing a forceful punch against Barrets chest.

"What the fu..!" was all that came from Barret before he felt his feet leave the surface of the platform and was propelled backwards against the railing with enough force to bend the rail outward with Barrets body laying against it.

Once gaining his composure Axel rushed over to Rem, ignoring the flurry of bullets that were fired at the two from the three members of Avalanche who had regained themselves from what they had just witnessed.

"Cutting it a bit close there weren't you?" Rem said breathlessly after they hid behind a bundle of metal canisters. Axel merely shook his head at her teasing.

"Well next time I'll just leave you to fend after yourself then, how does that sound?" his attention not fully on her as he looked at his glove that was used against his enemy, seeing that the knuckle part of the glove was dented from the impact between it and the pure muscle that was Barrets chest.

"Idiot ape, this will take weeks to repair" he muttered to himself.

Rem let out a sigh before gripping the sword hilt that was attached to her hip "I'll try and hold them off, you contact Cloud and see if we can get some back up" she instructed before hearing a sudden change in the amount of gun fire, changing from round after round of gunfire to pure silence.

Deciding to take a chance, Rem looked up from behind the metal canister to see that Wedge and Biggs had come to Barrets aid who was obviously too injured to move on his own. Her attention was drawn to Jesse who was holding what looked like a missile launcher, resting on her shoulder as she took aim in their direction.

"Oh shit!" Rem yelled out before grabbing Axel by the front of his lab coat, him letting out a "Rem! What are you doing?!" as she pulled him out from behind their hiding spot.

Jesse took a few seconds to aim carefully before firing the large weapon. What came firing from the large barrel was not a missile, a grenade, or bullet, but rather a large round metal ball which opened up in mid air, resembling what looked like a baseball sized, metallic spider.

"Is her aim…that terrible?" Rem asked out loud as the two watched the metallic insect soar way above the hiding spot they had evacuated from.

The fired projectile soared high above the canisters and traveled over to the other side of the large room and slammed against the wall with a loud metallic 'bang!'. As soon as the machine hit the wall, its eight legs instantly dug into the wall to prevent it from falling. The robotic creature began to crawl down the wall to the lowest section of the room where the green pool glowed brightly.

"The hell?" Rem would mutter quietly as the two watched on, ignoring the fact that Avalanche wasn't attacking them anymore but rather making their way towards the exit with Biggs and Wedge struggling to carry the massive injured Barret.

"Come on, we only got 10 minutes to get out of here" Jesse could be heard instructing the group before disappearing into the next room over.

Even from high above, Axel could see the metal spider continue its descent downward till it reached the control panel at the end of the platform against the wall. With a loud 'thud' the small machine dug it's legs into the panel and pressed its bottom against the surface securely, a small display showing a blinking red '10:00' on the very top of the bomb which started to count down.

"Damn it" Axel muttered as his eyes widened in fear, pressing on the small communicator in his ear to send a signal out to the others who he figured should be answering at any second since they obviously didn't have their hands full with Avalanche. Once he heard the confirmation 'beep' come in from the other end to signal that they could hear him he began to speak.

"Cloud?! Come in Cloud, can you hear me?" he asked with a hint of panic in his tone before running over to the exit that Avalanche had just gone through only a few seconds ago with Rem right beside him. The sound of gun shots from up ahead told him that Avalanche had come across more guards that were left out from the previous battles.

He then heard the blond male on the other end "Axel?! What's going on? Are you and Rem alright?" the concern in his voice could even be distinguished over the communicator, which started to static out making it hard to hear anything else that was coming through from the other party.

"We acquired the mako, but Avalanche has cut us off from our exit. Cloud, they set the bomb already and it's been activated for 10 minutes. Get everyone far away from sector 7 as possible!" Axel would yell out in hopes Cloud would hear him but all he got was static, causing him to let out yet another "Damn it!" as he started to wonder if Cloud even got the last bit of information.

"What did he say? They aren't coming are they?" Rem asked as the two of them ran to the vent that would take them back to the outside area of the reactor.

Axel shook his head "I have no idea" he answered back as he continued to run while his boots metallically thudded against the ground loudly, Rem still following behind him "the transmitter cut off while I was communicating with Cloud" he explained as they ran as fast as they could, Axel keeping a mental count down in the back of his mind.

The doors swung open as Axel made his way through them, he could hear the yelling and running footsteps of Avalanche high above them as the group of four made their way to the elevator, not noticing the short cut through the vents that Axel and Rem had taken to get inside. Axel quickly ran over to the open vent and started to crawl through, Rem giving a slight shutter and sigh before crawling into the confined space as she figured she would rather go through it all over again than to be killed in a fiery explosion.

4 minutes, only 4 minutes left till the bomb would go off and destroy the reactor. This was what was going through Axels mind as he kept the counter going on in his head. But he knew that if they could reach the train platform before the bomb would go off, they would still make it.

Once out of the vents Axel waited for Rem to appear from the same opening he had come out from before taking off down the road that lead past the metal doors that he opened for Jesse only a little while ago.

"We're going to make it….right?" Rem asked in a breathless state as the two continued to run, the doorway leading down to the train station was now in sight, giving the two a feeling of lifted spirits as Axel exclaimed out "3 minutes left, we'll make it".

They rushed down the stairs, expecting to be greeted by the sound of hissing steam and the sight of their one way ticket back home to safety and the rest of the group.

"Wh..what the...?!" Rem would exclaim once down at the platform only to see that no train waited for them on the tracks. The two were left alone on the platform with only 30 seconds left till the bomb would go off.

"They..they must have known once Avalanche made their appearance. They figured if Avalanche planted a bomb in the reactor than the explosion would at least take their enemy out too if they took away Avalanches only means of escaping" Axel explained as he looked around desperately for another means of escaping the area, but a look of defeat formed on his face as he realized there was no other way of leaving the area and there was no way of outrunning such an explosion.

An explosion could be heard from the depths of the reactor that caught the attention of the two, one that signalled off the beginning of a chair reaction of more explosions. After looking at what would be the instrument of their doom, Axel looked over at Rem who was already making her way over to him. She silently got down on one knee to be at the same level as him before wrapping her arms around him in an embrace.

"You know...it's ok to cry in situations like this" she said quietly against his shoulder as two single tears streamed down her cheeks, finding it rather silly that someone younger than her was the one not crying right now. But then she realized for the first time that she had never seen Axel cry during the time they spent together with the group, so why would he now?

Axel let out a sigh as he stood there, his hand reaching up around her arm to push his glasses back up his nose, a quiet "…idiot" was muttered from him.

The reactor gave a loud horrible groan, one that would send shivers down the spines of those who heard it before the entire building exploded in a large cloud of smoke and fire. A shockwave was sent out from the structure as near by buildings within a blocks of the reactor were destroyed by the force. A loud alarm could be heard throughout the city of Midgar a few seconds later, signalling the beginning of what would be seen the next morning as a terrorist attack from Avalanche.


	7. Chapter 7

The crackling of static continued to flow into Clouds ears as he listened to the communicator in his ear, hoping to hear the voice of Axel come up once again to inform him that everything was alright and that they were on their way back to the base. But instead was distracted by another noise that came from behind him. A low eerie groan came from the reactor that towered beyond the roof of the plate that covered over the Sector 7 slums.

"What the…hell is that?" Jeannes voice said a bit loudly as the groaning noise grew louder, everyone starting to feel a sense of panic taking over them as they could only guess that the worst had just happened.

Above the plate a loud explosion erupted, shaking the upper plate violently that the fear of it falling down on them seemed far from just a thought. The shockwave from the blast even affected the slums below the plate, causing the poorly welded buildings to fall over like flimsy houses made of paper. The trio tried to hold their ground as they covered their faces with their arms, only to fail against the powerful force and feel themselves being pushed off their feet and land yards away from where they stood.

Laying on his front, Cloud opened his eyes slowing, his ears were still ringing from the intensity of the blast. Once on his feet again, Cloud looked around to see that the damage was very minimal as only a few makeshift buildings had fallen over, windows were shattered and many people were struggling to get to their feet. But from what he could see no fatalities had occurred from the explosion, his glance then going to the upper plate above as he started to think that the citizens and structures on the upper plate weren't so lucky.

"Holy sh…what was that?!" Jeanne yelled out from behind Cloud, apparently having been thrown back further than him and Clive, right into a pile of garbage. She struggled to walk over to Cloud as she covered her ears with a strained look on her face, obviously having the same affect of ringing ears as Cloud did.

Clive who seemed to be pretty calm throughout what had just happened was already on his feet dusting himself off.

"Perhaps that was from the bomb Axel was talking about earlier" Clive suggested before letting out a sigh once realizing that the cigarette he had just lit only moments ago was now gone from his mouth.

The sudden realization of Axel and Rem had come to Cloud, his hand instantly went to his ear to activate his communicator.

"Axel!...Rem! Come in!" he yelled out and waited for them to reply back, wanting nothing more at that moment to hear either one of them so he knew that they were ok. But there was no response, not even the signal that their communicators were active would reply back.

"Come in Axel! Rem!" he would yell out even louder, as if being louder would get them to talk back to him. But still nothing was coming through back to him, his heart feeling as if it had just sunk down to his stomach.

Clouds hands turned into fists of rage as the realization of what happened was starting to sink into him, Axel and Rem were dead.

"Kid! You better fucking answer me you little.." a chocked up Jeanne could be heard from behind him. She too was trying to communicate with Axel with her own communicator as tears poured down her face, her legs seeming to be giving out as she fell down to her knees.

"Axel! Rem!" she yelled out as loud as she could once more into the communicator before her hands covered her face, breaking out into a cry.

Clive stood quietly as the only sound that could be heard was the sound of Jeannes sobs and the sound of the city wide alarm going off up above the plate.

"You know….they might still be alive" he said in a suggesting tone "All we know is that the communicators aren't feeding through, perhaps they are alive and…" the green haired man was suddenly interrupted by Cloud.J

"Don't….Clive" he said rather warningly. He knew that if he had let Clive continue to speak it would only give Jeanne false hope, possibly giving Cloud the sense of hope too that their friends had somehow survived the explosion. But Cloud knew that the duo were in the reactor at the time of the blast and even if they had gotten out, the explosion in the surrounding area would have killed anyone within blocks of the reactor.

Clive looked slightly irritated by Clouds tone. Clive opening his mouth to retort back, possibly to vent out on the loss of their friends but was cut off by a familiar voice that came from behind them.

"C..Cloud, what.." Tifa appeared, stumbling from the doors of Seventh Heaven, her body covered in cuts and blood trickling down her arms, legs and face. In some of her wounds there were shards of glass sticking out from the bloody openings, showing that she had been behind the bar counter near the glass liquor bottles when the explosion occurred.

The very sight of Tifa being injured was enough to make him run over to her, in time for him to catch her as she started to lose her footing.

She seemed weak and tired, the amount of blood loss already having a toll on her body.

"Clou…" was all that came from her lips before passing out in his arms, her face starting to go from it's usually healthy pink color to a ghostly white.

Cloud was still trying to get over the shock of losing two of his friends to the explosion, but the sudden appearance of Tifa in such a state snapped him back to a stable state of mind. He lost Axel and Rem, he couldn't lose Tifa too.

"Lets get back to the base, we need to get her some help" he commanded to the other two who remained in the background.

Jeanne let out one last sob before rubbing her eyes to clear away the tears. She found the energy to get back to her feet but still had a look on her face that made her look like she was about to break out into tears again. Clive merely walked over to Cloud to look at the woman in his arms.

"You sure taking her to the base is what she needs? Maybe a hospital would be a better idea" he suggested, but Cloud shook his head in response.

"The hospitals won't be any good, after an accident like that the hospitals of Midgar are going to be jam packed with injured people. She needs help now, besides…" Cloud then looked at Clive as he stood up with Tifa draped in his arms

"I am sure a job like this is more than enough for you to handle" Cloud said as he started to walk in the direction of the gateway that lead back to the next Sector over to head back to the warehouse. Jeanne followed in pursuit of Cloud silently, Clive rubbing the back of his head as he too followed "You know it's been a long time since I actually stitched someone up right?" he would say with a look of discomfort on his face.

After an hour of walking, the group finally reached the warehouse that was their base. The citizens of Sector 3 seemed to be in a panic as people were talking among one other, the question of 'what happened?' seemed to be asked by everyone while only a hand full of people informed the rest of what had happened in Sector 7.

"Damn Avalanche, they don't give a damn about anyone but themselves!" one person could be heard yelling out before Clive closed the door behind him. He then watched as Cloud made his way over to the office, once inside the small room he placed the tall slender woman on the table. Cloud looked down at the unconscious figure of Tifa, his hand going over her forehead to push her hair away from her emotionless face.

"It might take sometime for me to completely get her stitched up and get all of the glass out" Clive said as he walked into the room carrying a small medical kit "That's the easy part though, we still need to replace the blood that she lost and she lost a lot" he continued to inform as he placed the kit down on the table next to Tifas body, opening it up to retrieve the items he needed for the procedure.

"She can have my blood" Cloud said without hesitation, but Clive gave a small shake of his head as he began to sterilize a set of tweezers.

"I don't think that would be a good idea boss. With the mako that's coursing through our bodies, who knows how it would affect her afterwards to suddenly have such a thing mixing with her own blood" he cautioned before starting the procedure of removing the many shards of glass from her body.

Cloud frowned at this, as much as he wanted to save Tifa, he didn't want to put her life at any more of a risk by having something put into her that would cause her to die anyway. He then turned around to leave the room "Just keep doing what you need to do, I'll look after the blood problem" he would say before closing the door behind him, leaving Clive in wonder of how Cloud would obtain such a thing.

The dimly lit main room of the warehouse was rather cold. The only sound that could be heard was the sound of the sudden rain that had started, droplets of water pattering against the metal rooftop.

Sitting on top of a box against the side of the warehouse was Jeanne, her arms wrapped around her legs with her face pressed against her legs in a sitting up fetal position. Being so quiet and secluded was quite out of character for her. Cloud was tempted to console her and assure her that things would be alright, but decided perhaps letting her be for now was the best thing for her.

"I am heading out for a bit, Tifa needs blood so I am going to see if the hospital in the Sector has any to spare" he said loud enough for Jeanne to hear. The small girl merely looked up from her legs at Cloud. Her eyes puffy and red, still shining with tears as she gave him a slight nod before returning back to her constricted composure.

Not wanting to say anything else that might set her off once again, Cloud left it at that and made his way to the doorway that led out to the streets of Midgar, only to be greeted by the rain that heavily came down upon the city from the sky above. He let out a small groan before walking down the sidewalk, noticing that the streets were now empty, the people who were recently out on the streets probably have retreated from the down pour.

After reaching the hospital of the Sector, he had found that a lot of patients were those injured from the blast back in Sector 7. The hospital in Sector 7 was so full of patients that anyone else that needed attention was sent to other hospitals in other sectors, making it quite difficult to speak to someone about his situation.

An hour had gone by till he was finally able to explain his situation. His request for blood was first denied by doctors as they told him it was against protocol to give out blood packs to just anyone off the streets. But when the name Katsuo was brought up, one of the doctors pulled Cloud off to the side to sneak him what he needed. Apparently the doctor had worked alongside Clives parents back in the day of when they owned their own clinic.

"Yes yes, I remember that child. A small curious child who was very interested in medicine at the time" the doctor went on, a small smile formed on the old mans mouth as if remember a fond memory "They were a very popular family among the people of the slums. They never turned down a patient, whether it was a Shinra guard or a poor soul from the streets who needed help" the doctor handed Cloud a paper bag, its contents exactly what Cloud needed to bring back to the warehouse.

With an appreciative nod and a hand shake, Cloud thanked the doctor for his help and immediately took off to go back to the warehouse. Time was not in his favor as he realized he took longer than he had planned on, hoping Clive was able to heal Tifa to keep her in a stable state.

After calming herself down, Jeanne shifted her legs down the side of the box she sat on and placed her feet down on the concrete floor. The sadness hadn't left her as all she could think about was wanting her friends back, but her mind was telling her that sitting around crying all day wasn't the way to handle things. She started to walk across the main room of the warehouse towards the office room, wondering how Clive was doing with his patient.

A loud bang noise echoed throughout the room that came from the doorway at the front of the warehouse. Jeanne turned instantly to face the door that resided at least 10 meters away from where she sat in the shadows.

"You gotta be shitting me" she muttered quietly in her still choked voice, a sense of fear started to fill her as she saw the handle of the doorway start to move up and down forcefully. More banging against the door echoed loudly throughout the large room, whoever on the other side of it was trying to break down the door.


	8. Chapter 8

Again and again, the sound of someone heavily pounding against the metallic doorway of the warehouse echoed through the almost empty large room. A sense of panic came over Jeanne as she stood on the spot as random thoughts came to mind. Perhaps Shinra had found out where they were hiding, or maybe it was Avalanche coming to finish off the rest of the group.

The small woman started to walk slowly over to the door, her hand reaching to her waist side to grip onto the handle of her pistol. Her mouth opened slightly as she was about to ask the person on the other side of the door who they were, but stopped herself from doing so as she suddenly realized something. The building they were in was assumed to be an old abandoned warehouse, making her presence on the other side of the door known might do more harm than good if it was someone merely trying to find shelter from the rain and was unable to break down the door afterall.

The loud banging came to a sudden stop, the only sound that could be heard now was the pattering of the rain hitting the metal rooftop of the warehouse. Just as Jeanne had relaxed herself and let out a sigh, the door handle twisted all of the way and the door swung open quickly to allow the soaking wet figure of a man into the warehouse.

Jeanne let out a loud, scared squeak before aiming her gun at the intruder. Before she could even pull her finger back against the trigger, the large male grabbed the barrel of her weapon and pulled it away so that it was now pointing up at the ceiling.

"Jeanne! What's wrong with you?" the man questioned in a demanding tone as he continued to hold her weapon away from him. Jeanne, who had closed her eyes when taking aim at the mystery man, opened one eye slowly to get a better look at who had just broken into their base.

"C…Cloud?" she asked as she looked carefully. The man who stood before her was definitely him but looked rather different from his hair being so flat from the weight of the rain water that it absorbed, a look that Jeanne had never seen before as he would always have his hair in the same, usual spiky fashion.

Her heart was racing at a mile a minute before returning back to a calm state once realizing it was their commanding ex-soldier, giving a small sigh of relief before giving Cloud an angry look.

"Me?! What the fuck are you doing?! Breaking down the door like you were, I seriously thought Shinra was going to come bursting in here with guns a blazing!" she spoke down to the blond as he walked across the room and ruffled his hair as he tried to get as much water out of it as possible, returning it to a somewhat spiky state once again.

"The door wouldn't open, I think the lock is rusted up again" he explained as Jeanne closed the door, blocking out the pouring rain

"Still though…shit" Jeanne fumed as she crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes suddenly locked on the bag that was cradled in Clouds arms "You got blood? What did you do? Kill a hobo?" she asked with a hint of interest in her tone as she was curious as to how he obtain something like blood so quickly.

Cloud knew that Jeanne was joking , but to him this was a relief as this showed that she was doing a bit better than she was when he left the warehouse earlier.

"Yeah that's exactly what I did, thinking of starting my own hobo killing/blood collecting business" he joked back before making his way over to the office where he left Clive earlier.

Upon opening the door to the only office in the warehouse, the combined smell of blood and medicines greeted him before walking inside. Clive was still working at stitching up Tifas wounds but it had seemed that he had already taken care of a majority of her cuts. Cloud started to think to himself that Clive was probably glad the he wasn't a true doctor working at the hospital right now as he was sure that if he was, a nurse would have been giving him a good talking to about smoking his cigarette while working on a patient.

"And here I was starting to wonder when you would get back" said Clive before looking over at Cloud, his eyes drawn to the bag that was in the blonds arms.

"I take it you were able to get the blood huh?" he asked, Cloud replying with a small nod of his head.

"Yeah the hospital wasn't too eager to give me free blood. That is until I mentioned your name" Cloud informed him as he placed the bag down on the table next to Tifas still unconscious body. He couldn't help but look down at the long haired bartender. The visions of back in Nibelheim started to fill his mind as it was almost the same scenario, his childhood laying before him unconscious and bloody but this time not as mortally wounded as before.

"So…you two got a history together or something? A past girlfriend perhaps?" Clive teased a bit as he finished up the last stitch that was required. Cloud merely shook his head before answering Clive's question.

"No nothing like that, we were…just close friends back in our hometown" giving a very small explanation as Cloud then noticed Jeanne making her way into the room, seeming to have calmed down a bit from the scare she received from him.

"Well that's how it usual start out Cloud" Clive added with a smirk before signalling Cloud to hand him the contents of the bag. Cloud gave a small frown before reaching into the crumpled paper bag and pulled out the plastic bag that was filled to its capacity with donated blood.

After a few minutes of hooking up machines from Axels workshop and the pressing of a few buttons, blood from the package started to slowly transfer through the tubing and into the slender body of Tifa, her skin gaining its pink color slowly.

"There, she should be alright once the process is done" Clive informed as he sat down on one of the chairs, a small puff of smoke escaping his lips as he spoke. Cloud gave an appreciative nod.

"Thanks Clive, it's a good thing you have some medical knowledge or else who knows what would have become of her" expressing his gratitude, Cloud couldn't help but keep his eyes on Tifa. Even though she fought along side the very group that they considered to be their enemy in their fight to gain command over Shinra, he still cared for the woman from his past. The memory of the promise that he was forcibly made to take back at the water tower before heading off to Midgar to train to be in Soldier was still fresh in his mind, as if it had only been a few days.

"So…what are we going to do now?" Jeanne finally spoke out to the others, causing them to turn to look at her as she was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, both finding it rather eerie that she was being so serious and not her usual happy, loud self.

"What do you mean?" Cloud asked curiously as he wondered what the younger girl was asking. Jeanne gave a small frown before moving slightly so that her back was removed from the wall.

"Well…since the mission was a failure and we have no mako, what do we do?" she asked as her eyes met with Clouds, filled with a sense of hope that he had a plan.

Her question hit the two males like a ton of bricks. With everything that had been going on they complete forgot about the original mission of sending Axel and Rem to the reactor and that they never did get what they were after.

The expression on Clouds face didn't make Jeanne feel any better as it was filled with a mixture of realization, telling her that even the leader of their group had no answer to her question.

"Another mako run?" Clive suggested with a small shrug. Cloud instantly shook his head at Clives idea.

"No. After all of this, Shinra might be expecting another attack on the reactors and will most likely beef up security so they don't lose another one" Cloud explained. He was never really all that great at coming up with plans all on his own, usually he was the one to come up with some plans but Axel was always the one to create a plan and make it work.

"Then what the hell are we going to do then? If we can't get mako, then we're as good as dead" Jeannes words not being acknowledged as the two already new this point.

Thoughts started to fill Clouds mind as he tried to figure out what the next best plan would be after a blow like this was put upon them, his eyes looking at the two remaining group members before letting out a small sigh.

"Well…there is one option" he said rather unenthusiastically before being interrupted by the sound of a groaning Tifa, her weak body moving slightly before struggling to get up into a sitting position.

"W...what happened?" she asked as her eyes remained only slightly open, her vision trying to come into focus as her body was still trying to recover.

Giving Jeanne and Clive a look that told them 'We'll continue this later', Cloud made his way over to the side of the now awoken Tifa.

"Seems your amazing team fucked up big time and almost blew us all to smithereens" Jeanne said rather spitefully, causing Clive to give her a slight punch to the shoulder. Jeanne let out a quiet '...damn it Clive' as she rubbed where he had hit her.

Once the two seemed to be done, Cloud looked back at Tifa before speaking to her calmly "Avalanche set off a bomb inside the reactor and took out a good portion of Sector 7. You were injured from the shockwave but Clive says you'll make a pretty quick recovery"

Tifas hand came to her forehead as Cloud spoke to her, her head giving off a massive migraine which caused her face to contort to an expression of pain.

"But…is everyone alright? They got out of the reactor right?" Tifa looked up at Cloud as she asked with a sense of both fear and hopefulness in her eyes.

Even though he did not care for the well being of Avalanche as they now gave him yet another reason to hate them, the deaths of two of his friends, he himself started to wonder if the large burly man and his crew had gotten out of the reactor or was killed along with everyone else.

"Right now Tifa, I don't really care what happens to Avalanche. To be honest, I hope they were killed in that explosion of theirs" he said rather bluntly, a reaction that did not sit well with Tifa. She then stood up off of the table, her eyes now showing her anger towards him.

"What?!...how could you say something like that Cloud? I know you two didn't see eye to eye but…" she started to go off but was instantly interrupted.

"Two of our friends died in Avalanches bombing Tifa" was all Cloud had to say to her, it being enough to keep her silent as she continued to look up at him. An obvious struggle was going on through her mind as he could tell she was trying to figure out what the next words out of her mouth would be to this news.

"Cloud…I…I am sorry" her voice filled with sympathy as he eyes went down to looking at the concrete floor below.

Cloud himself was at a state of mixed feelings; he knew that none of this was her fault as she was more of a provider for Avalanche for their base. But the fact that she fought along side them made his attitude towards her to be rather hostile.

"You're all healed now; you might as well head back to sector 7 in case your friends did survive the reactors explosion. They might be waiting for you" said Cloud before turning his back to her to go over to the doorway that lead out to the main storage area of the warehouse.

Tifa was at a loss of words. She had just been reunited with the one friend that she truly cared about since her childhood and there he stood, holding the door for her and practically telling her to get out.

"Cloud…" was all that came from her as her eyes filled with tears. She felt that there was nothing she could say to him to make this situation any better and with the way he was treating her she wasn't sure if she wanted to find such words.

Tifa made her way over to the door as the room remained silent, her arms crossing over her in a self-comforting fashion. Once she reached Clouds side, she halted her footsteps for a moment before looking up at him as if she was about to say something. But instead she closed her eyes and faced the doorway once again, disappearing behind the metallic door that lead out into the Sector 3 streets.

Clive gave a small frown before lighting up a fresh new cigarette.

"Kind of harsh don't you think?" he asked Cloud as the sound of the door closing behind Tifa echoed throughout the warehouse. Cloud thought that Clive might have been right but they had bigger problems to face.

"She'll be fine" was all that came from Cloud before Jeanne spoke up once again.

"So what were you saying before? You have a plan to get us more mako?" she questioned, her eyes reflecting the curiosity with of what the ex-soldier had planned next.

Being brought back to the topic, Cloud gave a small disapproving groan before giving out his plan.

"There's one place that I think we can go to to get what we need. I am not 100% sure if it will work out in the end since Shinra may have increased security since the last time I was there, or even if the reactor is currently running at all" he informed before his brows furrowed slightly at the discomfort of speaking of the idea.

"The only place I can think of that we even stand a chance of getting mako from is Nibelheim, my hometown"


	9. Chapter 9

The tires of a van rolled across the grassy lands of the continent in which Midgar resided, the white delivery van traveling at a rather fast pace as it came to two mountains that warped the route to go from a wide open field to a narrow passage between the two land protrusions.

"Oww!" a female voice came from the back of the van after following a loud 'bang!' coming from the roof of the back. The dark haired twin pony tailed girl rubbed her head as she sat down with small tears forming in her eyes from the pain of her head bashing up against the metal roof of the vehicle.

"God damn it, can't this guy take it any easier on the road?" she muttered before pouting slightly, her whining only being answered by Clive who sat across from her.

"Hey just be grateful that we are even able to get a ride to Junon" he said bluntly without opening his eyes, missing the tongue that was stuck out at him.

Cloud remained sitting beside Jeanne in a cross-legged fashion, the memory of how they stalked around the building of the company after finding out that it made deliveries to cities all around the continent. He started to wonder if the promise he made to the driver about being protection during the ride in exchange for a trip to Junon was the most ideal deal to make as they had no idea what the cargo was that the van was delivering. But they had no other way of getting to Junon which was where they needed to go to take a boat over to Costa De Sol.

"Yeah well still, he needs to learn who to drive...you hear that?!" she yelled out at the driver through the metal wall that separated them from the driver, obviously not hearing her as there was no answer back to from behind the wall.

"Calm down Jeanne" Cloud said rather coldly, not wanting her to be the reason why they would get kicked out of the van in the middle of no where.

With a sigh of defeat Jeanne looked at her feet as she moved them from side to side with a bored look on her face "Well something better happen during this ride or else I am gonna go bonkers out of boredom and being packed in this piece of crap van"

Figuring that there was no way to keep her from being the way she was right now, Clive and Cloud thought it would be better to just leave her be so not to aggravate her anymore than she already was.

After about an hour had gone by since Jeanne had decided to take up silence, the truck started to slow down and the small window between the cargo area and the front of the van slid open, the drivers face emerging from behind the fence like wiring in the opening.

"Hey, better hold on tight to something, we're hitting the marshes and the ride tends to get pretty bumpy from here" he instructed before sliding the tiny door shut once again, leaving Jeanne to look up at the now closed opening with a look of disbelief.

"You mean...the ride so far wasn't rough?!" she exclaimed with a look of fury on her face. She stood up to raise her hand, readying it to pound on the metal wall in frustration but was instantly thrown off balance by the vans sudden jerking motion off to the side, causing her to fall onto her rear.

The ride was indeed a lot rougher than before, the van literally feeling as though it was going to fall on it's side as it felt like the van was driving over large rocks on one side of the tires, followed by the other side in a rocking motion. This motion did not sit well with Cloud at all who had a look of pure discomfort on his face. He had always had a problem with motion sickness, especially with bumpy car rides, boat rides and any other forms of transportation that caused such sudden movements.

Clive was the only one who was able to sit on the spot without complaining or showing any sign of discomfort, his cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth.

"Fuck!" Jeanne yelled out as she felt herself thrown backwards against the wall of the van from the sudden jerk of the vehicle tilted off to the left, the back of her head making contact with the wall first.

"Hey! Are we almost there or what?!" Jeanne tried yelling through the wall at the driver as she tried to stand up. As if to answer her question, the van came to sudden stop with the engine still running.

"About time" Jeanne said with a sigh of relief but was suddenly cut off by the sound of a yell of fear from the driver. Without hesitation the three went to the back of the van and pushed open the doors, being welcomed by the site of a giant swamp that seemed to go on forever. The sky was a dull grey and the water that went up to the bottom of the van was so black that there was no way of telling if there was even a bottom to the disgusting marsh. One by one they jumped out from the vehicle as they wondered what caused the man to scream the way he did but as they came from around the van they instantly saw what it was that caused the man to jump out from vehicle and hide behind them.

"T..t..there! Get to work!" he said with pure fear in his voice as he pointed a finger at the large enemy before them. Standing at a good 20 feet was a giant snake like monster, its large fangs being bared as it hissed loudly at them. Jeanne's jaw dropped at the sight of the large monster.

"Wh..what the hell is that thing?" she asked but instead of fear in her voice like the drivers, it had more of a tone of excitement. Clive tilted his head curiously at the large monster before speaking up.

"I heard about such a monster from people traveling from other cities who were visiting Midgar. I believe they called it a Zolom" he said as his eyes followed the large snake, watching its head move from side to side slowly.

The driver looked at the three quickly before eyeing the monster once again "What's wrong with you guys? Aren't you afraid of that thing?" he asked, the fearful look still on his face.

Cloud merely looked at the others and gave a slight shrug.

"So who wants this one?" he asked as he shifted his eyes from one to the other. As soon as Cloud finished his sentence, Jeanne automatically cut in with a huge grin on her face as she rose her hand way up into the air.

"Oo! Oo! I'll take care of this one!" she said excitedly, Clive shrugging his shoulders as if to tell Cloud that he didn't care.

"All right Jeanne, it's all yours" Cloud said as he remained on the spot with crossed arms, suddenly feeling a hand grab his shoulder from behind.

"Are you nuts?! You're going to let that girl take on the Zolom?! The beast that no one has been able to kill yet?" the driver asked in a tone of disbelief. Cloud kept his eyes on the scene before him, not looking back at the man as he answered his question.

"Yeah, why not?" was all he said before falling silent as he watched Jeanne make her way towards the large, hungry looking snake.

Jeanne grinned as she stepped through the watery surroundings, pulling her rifle from over her shoulder and aimed it at the snakes jaw.

"Aww you look pretty hungry Mr. Zolom. Here, I have just the thing you need" she said in an amused tone before firing her gun. The loud bang of her rifle echoed loudly around the area, a green streak of light erupted from the barrel of her rifle. The streak of light zipped through the air instantaneously and zipped right through the snake's lower jaw, causing it to thrash around the water in pain.

After gaining its composure, the snake hissed loudly in anger before slamming its tail right down on Jeanne. Water erupted powerfully from where the snake hit and created a mist like reaction in the air. Once the water cleared, the area was clear enough to see that Jeanne had dodged the attack by moving to the left and was now running up the length of the snake's tail and up its body. The Zolom made a bite at Jeanne as she got closer to its midsection but she merely did a cartwheel to dodge the wide open mouth of the monster and then took the opportunity to jump onto its head.

"I hope you like spicy food Zolom, cuz this will have quite a kick to it" she said with a smirk as she held onto its head, the Zolom shaking it's head around frantically as it tried to throw her off. She then hit the barrel of her rifle against the scaly skin of the serpent, causing the weapon to shine brightly. The glowing figure of her weapon began to twist and reform itself, the light dissipating to reveal that her weapon had changed into a rocket launcher.

After planting her feet against the top of the serpents head, she then jumped up into the air right above the snake. The Zolom then faced up as it realized its prey was now aboce it, opening its mouth to swallow the over bite sized girl, but was then stopped as it realized it couldn't close its mouth. At the opening of its mouth, Jeanne was holding the jaw of the monster wide open with her feet as she was in a splits like stance. The smirk on her face never left her as she peered down at the saliva covered insides of the serpents mouth, only a few feet away from what would be considered the very last thing people would see in her position.

She calmly aimed her weapon down the oesophagus of the Zolom and fired the missle without hesitation, using the backfire of the launcher to propel herself away from the Zoloms mouth before it snapped shut. As Jeannes feet made contact with the swampy surface below, she grinned at the others and gave a peace sign before a muffled explosion could be heard deep from within the Zolom.

From the look in its eyes it could be seen that the life was slowing being drained from it, its mouth opened slightly as both blood and black smoke spewed from it before slamming down to the surface below.

"Alright, we're done here" Cloud said rather dully before walking back to the van, Clive following in pursuit and Jeanne running after them with a pissed off look.

"Hey! Aren't you gonna say how cool I was back there?!" she yelled before the van doors slammed shut behind them, leaving the driver to gawk at his van in shock.

"Wh...what the hell are they?" he wondered to himself before looking over at the lifeless Zolom as smoke continued to erupt from its open mouth.

A few hours had gone by since the fight with the Zolom, the van traveled roughly through the narrow passages of the Mythril Caverns and across the fields of the other side of the continent, finally arriving at its destination.

"Hey..thanks again for looking after me and my cargo, you guys ever think about starting a protection agency for us delivery guys?" the driver joked as the three exited the vehicle. Jeanne couldn't help but laugh at the mans suggestion, finding it rather ridiculous that they would start such a thing.

"Well we'll keep that in mind for the future" Cloud humoured the man before the white van took off down the road.

Cloud looked around at the city before them, the sparkling wide open ocean to his left and the large buildings that ascended upward along the cliff to his right. He then looked upward at the large canon that loomed over the city, stretching out at least a two football fields in length across the ocean.

Clive curiously looked over at a site that caught his eye rather quickly, the site of Jeanne looking around at the city with a sense of discomfort.

"Hey you alright kid" he asked with his cigarette still hanging from his mouth, his question getting a nod of her head before answering him.

"Y..yeah, I am fine. It's just.." she started to say before Cloud cut into the conversation.

"Been a while hasn't it? Since you've been to your hometown" Cloud asked before a chill coursed over his body. His heart began to race suddenly as his own words seemed to stir up something inside of him.

"Been a while hasn't it? Since you've been to your hometown" the words echoed in his head but not with his voice. The familiar voice of Sephiroth was the one asking the question to him now as his memory started to appear in his mind. He could remember it as clear as day, standing at the entrance to Nibelhiem with Sephiroth standing before him as he asked the question.

"Hey are you alright Cloud? You don't look so good" Clives voice snapped him back to reality, finding himself back on the street of Junon with the other two looking at him. Cloud figured the last thing they needed was to worry about him and his sanity, his head then shook in reassurance.

"Don't worry about me, just a bit of a headache" he lied before beginning to walk down the street, the others following by his side.

"So...how exactly are we going to sneak onto the boat? It's not like they're going to just let anyone onto the boat, especially if they recognize who we really are" Clive asked with a look of contemplation on his face, wondering how they were going to pull this one off without alerting Shinra to them being on board the boat.

Cloud started to think about the same thing before speaking.

"Well...if we were dressed like one of the guards then we could get onto the boat easily, but we'd need to get uniforms from somewhere" Cloud thought out loud before Jeanne piped up to silence the two males with her plan.

"Hey I have an idea! Wait here" she instructed, before thumbing over to a pair of Shinra guards who were walking down the street in their direction. She gave Cloud and Clive a small wink before running over to the two guards in blue.

"What the hell do you think she's doing?" Clive asked Cloud with a curious tone, not liking the fact that she was conversing with two guards of the enemy all by herself. They watched as she talked to the two, her stance changing to one that was seen as rather cute, her finger placed on her chin as she wobbled her body in a very sexual manner. The two men seemed to be dumbfounded by the girl who pointed to the alley right next to them, the two looking at each other before nodding their heads to the girl who continued to let her body sway back and forth gently as she tilted her head to the side cutely.

Both guards disappeared into the alley, Jeanne following behind them but looked over at Cloud and Clive with big smile on her face and thumbs up, the two watching in surprise.

"She...she isn't!" Clives expression was a mixture of disbelief and fear as he watched her disappear behind the wall of the building.

"Cloud we gotta get her out of there before something happens!" Clive turned to look at his leader, Clouds gaze was still watching with a calm look on his face. A few seconds going by before Clive angrily took a step towards the blond.

"Cloud! Why are you..." he was then cut off by Cloud who without a word pointed over at the alley where Jeanne and the two men had disappeared behind less than a minute ago. Clive then looked over at what Cloud was pointing to, seeing Jeanne poking her head out from behind the brick wall and motioned them to come over.

Both made their way over to the grinning girl who waited for them, Clive looking angrier than he had ever looked before.

"You...idiot! what do you think you were doing back there! You could have gotten seriously hurt" he started off but was then interrupted by Jeanne who pointed over at the two unconscious bodies that lay on the concrete ground only a few meters away.

"Ta-da! Two Shinra uniforms, just as requested" she said happily, ignoring the lecture Clive had just given her.

"Good job Jeanne" Cloud said before making his way over to the two guards, seeing that they were still alive but sleeping soundly, the large lumps on the back of their heads telling him that she knocked them both out when they weren't looking.

A few minutes went by before Cloud and Clive were fully dressed in the Shinra guard uniforms, Cloud rather disliking being in the old uniform that he used to wear back in his days of being a guard.

"Ugg, I always hated wearing this damn thing" he muttered as he fixed his helmet so it sat more comfortably on his head.

"Ok so we got our costumes, but what about you Jeanne?" Clive asked curiously as he looked at her from behind the visor of his helmet. Jeanne put a finger to her lips as she started to think "Hmmm...I didn't even think about that one" she thought out loudly.

"Perhaps...she could be just someone that asked us for a lift across the ocean, I am sure the other guards wouldn't stop a pedestrian from coming on the boat if they saw fellow Shinra guards monitoring her" Cloud suggested, the plan not sounding all that fool proof but it was the only thing he could think up on the spot.

"Oh wait...I gotta fix myself up a bit, don't want to go looking like my wanted posters now do I" Jeanne said before she reached behind her to undo the ribbons in her hair. Her twin ponytails instantly flopped down so that now she had her long straight hair traveling down to her rear, making her look rather different since her twin tails was always the style that the others had seen in her. She then reached into her pocket and pulled out a very small black case.

"Axel gave this to me a while back, to disguise my eyes" she explained before opening the small case to reveal two contact lenses inside. After putting them in, she looked at the two and blinked to adjust the small lenses, her eyes no longer glowing from the mako that was injected into her and the color of them going from hazel to a green color.

Looking at the other two, he felt they were ready to go since they were no longer recognizable as the terrorist group Shinra was after. Once leaving the alley, they made their way down the street with Jeanne in the middle of the two. Having been to Junon before, Cloud knew exactly where the harbour was and guided them there within only a few minutes. The door closed behind them as the looked at the large boat that waited for them on the side of the harbour, going up and down slightly as the waves pushed up against it.

A guard then approached them; a sense of hesitation seemed to fill all three as they hadn't counted on being interrogated so soon.

"You two, why is this girl here? No civilians allowed" the guard questioned in a strict tone, his eyes observing Jeanne through his shaded visor.

Trying to come up with something quick, Cloud was the first to speak out "She...she says that she missed the last passenger boat to Costa De Sol and her parents were on it. She asked us if she could take the ship there. As long as she's supervised, is there a problem with her being on board till we reach our destination?" Cloud asked but with a tone that was more demanding than asking. The guard looked at Cloud before looking down at the girl with dark hair, her eyes giving a somewhat pleading look.

The guard gave a small sigh before looking at both Cloud and Clive "Alright, just keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't wander into any parts of the ship that she isn't allowed in, got it?" the guard warned before making his way back to the ship.

All three let out sighs of relief, Jeanne going ahead of the others in a skipping fashion "Oh boy! My first boat ride! Thank you mister guards sirs!" she would say loudly, Cloud and Clive figuring she was starting to have fun with this.

"Out of the way, out of the way you idiots" a rather hostile yet familiar voice came from behind. Clouds eyes snapped open and his breathing deepened as he realized whose voice it was that demanded the two to move. He turned around to confirm that his guess was correct, standing behind them with a look of pure irritation was a short hunched man, glasses resting on his long nose, his black haired slicked back into a small pony tail and a large white lab coat covering his body.

"Sorry...Professor Hojo" Cloud said as he tried to stay in character, his anger starting to rise in him to the point of wanting nothing more than to kill the man on the spot. Cloud looked over at Clive to see that his teeth were clenched as they moved out of the way of the self-superior scientist.

"Completely morons, everywhere I turn" Hojo said loudly, obviously wanting them to hear his complaints as he walked by them towards the opening of the back of the boat.

"Come now, bring the experiments this way and be careful with them, they're already in horrid shape as it is" Hojo said without turning his head to look over at who he was making commands to.

Cloud and Clive turned to look and see two guards pushing coffin sized metal crates on dollies in the same path Hojo had just walked. Cloud looked down at the crates curiously, noticing that the tops were completely made of glass, making it visible to what was inside.

"Wh..what the hell?!" echoed through Clouds mind as his eyes widened, his hands beginning to shake before turning into fists. Once the crates were on board and the boat let out a low whistle to signal that departure would be soon, Clive noticed Clouds pale face.

"Hey, what's wrong with you? Why do you look like you're going to puke?" he asked before nodding over to the boat, telling Cloud that they had to go.

Cloud silently followed along side of Clive as they walked up the plank and into the large open cargo hold of the ship. Cloud finally being able to speak again, whispering quietly to Clive.

"In the crates...I saw them" Clouds voice still shaking a bit.

"Them?" Clives attention now drawn to the two crates that were now resting on the floor of the ship, the two guards who pushed them in were now standing by them as they conversed. Inside of one crate was the figure of a boy no older than 13 in an overly large lab coat with blonde hair and in the other a red haired woman in black clothing, both sleeping in a hibernating state


	10. Chapter 10

"Cloud...are you sure you saw what you saw?" The Shinra uniformed Clive asked with uncertainty in his tone as he spoke quietly to Cloud as they walked through the cargo bay of the ship, following the path that was made in the middle of the room by boxes that were lined up not so neatly on both sides of them. With a nod of his head, Cloud answered Clives question with a "yes, I am sure of it" rather bluntly.

Out of the corner of his eye and through the visor of his helmet, he saw the two metallic coffins being pushed through a doorway that was quickly closed behind the guards, a light above the door going from green to red to signal that the door had been locked. Figuring there was no point to following them at this time, Cloud continued on towards the stairway that led out to the upper deck of the boat.

"But how?" Clive wondered out loud as their boots clanked loudly against the metal stairs as they ascended. On the way up, they came across a Shinra guard who was traveling down the stairway, giving them a slight head nod as they past him. So far it as though their disguises were fooling their fellow shipmates.

"I don't know, but if Rem and Axel truly are alive and on the ship...it's probably best that we don't tell Jeanne about this till later" Cloud instructed as he was suddenly met with the fresh air of the ocean.

The ship had already taken off from the harbour of Junon, leaving it behind to shrink off in horizon behind the boat. The deck of the ship was rather large, almost enough room in the middle for a middle sized helicopter to land on. There were ladders that led up to platforms where guards had taken positions to watch out over the large sea in case enemies were to attack.

"Probably a good idea, think of the havoc she would make if she found out that they were holding those two captive down below" Clive said with a frown on his face, both knowing fully well that Jeanne would storm downstairs causing a huge scene and blowing their cover.

"But...it's a relief though, to know that they are still alive" Clives eyes looking around at the deck as he spoke.

"Lets not get our hopes up though" Cloud warned as he too tried to look like a guard as much as possible "I said I saw them in the crates, whether or not they are alive is something we will have to find out after the ride to Costa"

Cloud felt horrible bringing down the idea that their friends had survived the explosion back in Midgar, but he knew all too well that reality was a harsh matter and there was the chance that Axel and Rem were in fact dead and Hojo was just using their bodies for experiments. With the kind of person Hojo was, by reputation and from personal experience, he wouldn't put it past the professor to use dead bodies for his research.

Clive grew a bit quiet afterwards, possibly a bit put down as he had gotten his hopes up that his friends were back from the dead. The two continued to patrol around the deck when suddenly Clive asked Cloud a question that he himself hadn't thought up yet.

"Hey...where's Jeanne?" Clive asked, causing Cloud to stop and look around the ship rather frantically.

"Shit" was all that came from his mouth as he continued to look around, not seeing any sign of the young girl.

"You don't think they realized who she was, do you?" Clive asked as he too was looking around the deck from where they stood. Cloud then noticed that there was a walkway that led out to the deck the extended out in front of the bridge of the ship.

"Maybe she's over there" Cloud suggested as he pointed in the direction of the walkway. The two made their way down the walkway and sure enough at the head of the ship was Jeanne, all alone as she stared out at the ocean, the destination of the ship started to come into view as the continent was now visible on the horizon ahead.

"Hey, why are you out here?" Cloud questioned as he walked up to her, trying to stay in character as he knew that the sailors of the ship could see them from where they were. Cloud stopped in his tracks when Jeanne turned around to look at him, tears streaming down her cheeks and her eyes puffy and red.

"Cloud...did you see them too?" she asked, her voice cracking a bit as she was still trying to recover from the obvious cry that she just had. Cloud instantly knew what she was referring to, the tears and glossy eyes were proof that she too had seen the crates that were residing downstairs.

"Yeah I saw them" Cloud replied as he stood beside her, keeping his back to the window of the bridge as he continued to converse with her making sure they didn't come off as suspicious.

"Then let's go get them! We can easily take on these guards and rescue them, then we can all go back with Axel and Rem again" she said in a pleading tone, her eyes looking up at him like a sad and eager puppy, the same look she would give him that usually got her her way. This time was different though, there was too much at stake if they were to save them now.

"Now isn't the time to do it Jeanne" he responded back, instantly causing Jeanne to open her mouth, wanting to angrily yell at the blond but stopped when he spoke again "Don't worry Jeanne, if they are alive we will save them, I promise you that. Saving them now would be a bad idea, if we cause too much attention and alert them to us being who we are they will stop the ship and call for back up, giving us nowhere to run to to get away" he explained before looking down at her. He could see that his words sunk into her and made her realize that perhaps going Rambo on an enemy ship wouldn't be the best plan to save their friends.

"A..alright Cloud" she said as she let out a deep and heavy sigh, trying to calm herself. A small smile then formed on her face before she looked up at him again "Still though, I don't think I have been this happy in a long time, it's not every day you get to have your friends come back from the dead" she said with a giggle.

"Well I am sure you already know but...don't get your hopes up too much, we did see them but...we still need to find out if they truly are alive" he pointed out, but his words didn't seem to faze her at all as her smile remained unchanged on her face.

"Oh they're alive alright" she said as she tilted her head and the look of thought formed on her face "I saw on the side of their coffins that little...screen thing...you know, that one that goes 'beep beep beep'" she tried to explain as she made an ascending and descending motion with her finger as she made beeping noises. It took Cloud a minute to get what she was trying to tell him and then realized what it was.

"You mean a heart monitor? You're sure that's what you saw?" he asked in a rather demanding tone, his hopes were starting to heighten with her new information. Jeanne nodded her head in response before looking out over the ocean again.

"I...I am just going to wait here till the boat ride ends alright Cloud? One of the guards told me it was ok for me to be here, so I won't be suspicious in anyway" she said with a small smile.

Cloud made his way back to Clive who awaited for his return back on the walkway.

"So...did you explain it to her?" Clive asked as he wondered what the long conversation was about. Cloud nodded his head before walking past Clive to get back to the main deck area.

"She already knew, guess she figured going all Jeanne on this boat would have been a bad idea too" Cloud said with a small grin "Come on, we have to get back to our duties" he said with a bit of a mocking tone, Clive answering back just as smart-alecky by saluting him lazily and followed along.

The boat ride continued on under the blazing sun, making things much worse for Cloud in the heat as he was already feeling sea sick from the motion of the boat rocking back and forth. He had even gotten to the point of needing to sit down against the side railing of the boat, a guard approaching him at one point to see if he was alright. He merely waved him off saying "I am fine, just a bit motion sick" and the guard walked away shaking his head with a "rookie newbs" being muttered when out of an ear shot.

The large ship came to a halt in the harbour of the small resort of Costa, bringing the journey across the ocean to the continent to an end. Many guards made their way over to the railing as they all eagerly looked down at the small town of Costa De Sol, many discussing among one another about how they wanted to ditch the uniform and go have the same fun that the people within the resort were having while others grinned and pointed out to which woman in bikinis they thought were the hottest.

Rather than joining the group of males at the railing to gawk at the scenes below, Cloud and Clive both stood near the opposite side of the ship as they didn't want to bring any attention to themselves since things seemed to be running so smoothly so far. The site of Jeanne making her way towards them from where they had left her alone earlier was caught from the corner of Clouds eye, the sense of panic started to flood Cloud as he noticed one of the guards approach her. The expression on Jeanne's face showed that she too was feeling the same panic that Cloud was experiencing. She instantly put a calm smile on her face as she turned to the guard after he had called out to her.

From where he stood it was hard to tell what was being said between the two, a fact that caused both Cloud and Clive to prepare themselves in case they needed to step in. But the tension suddenly dropped as she started to make her way over to the two with a small skip in her step, giving the guard a small wave before looking back at them.

"What did he say to you?" Clouds question filled with much curiosity now that the possibility of Jeanne being caught and their cover being blown was no longer a threat. Jeanne let out a small giggle before moving her hand to her hair to brush a strand of it behind her ear with a smug look on her face.

"Oh not much, he was just asking me if I was staying here at the beach for a while and asked if 'a pretty little thing' like me would be interested for a date tonight" her words seeming to make herself giggle even more. Cloud let out a sigh, one that was a mix of both relief and hopelessness.

"And of course you being you, you probably said you were all up for the idea while knowing that you are leaving immediately" Clive said with a small grin on his face, seeing the teen give him a small wink and pressed her finger up to her lips to let out a small 'shhh'.

"Hey there's Hojo…man just looking at that guy gives me the creeps" the words of a guard could be heard from where the group of three stood. The name 'Hojo' alone was the very thing that caught their interest and made them walk over to the side of the ship to join the rest of the guards who were stilled loitering along the railing.

Cloud watched as no more than 10 guards started to leave the ship and crowd out onto the dock, five guards surrounding each of the two coffin like containers as they carried them out. Leading the small army of guards was Hojo, hunched over slightly as he walked in front of everyone with his hands behind his back, a bored look on his face.

"Come come now, hurry up and get my test subjects to the helicopter" he could be heard commanding the guards as he continued to walk along the walkway of the dock, the guards struggling to keep up with the professor as the containers seemed to slow them down from their weight.

"Cloud…come on, this is our chance" Jeanne whispered to Cloud, the impatience she had was obvious as he noticed her leg shaking slightly. Cloud observed the area and saw that many people had come to the docks to see the what was happening, some talking to each other as they were probably curious as to what were in the caskets that the guards carried while it seemed that some of the women down at the beach had come to the docks to check out the men in uniforms.

"There's too many people here, if we start a fight there might be casualties" Cloud whispered back, expecting a retort to come back from Jeanne but instead heard her give out a loud 'umph!', a sound that instantly made both him and Clive turn to see the guard from before holding onto Jeannes arm.

"Hey remember me? Lets head down to the beach and get to know one another a bit better shall we?" a large smirk on the guards lips as he spoke, his hand still gripping onto her arm even though she showed no sign of struggling. Staying calm in any given situation was one of Jeannes greatest features and was the one thing about her that got her out of many tight binds in the past. Jeanne merely gave the guard a small smile before speaking.

"I said later tonight Mr. Guardman, I have things I need to do first. But I'll meet you at the bar, ok?" her words coming out rather sweetly for someone who was being held so forcefully. Even with her play of being so sweet and kind, the guard shook his head to respond that it wasn't ok.

"No you're coming with me now; the ship goes back to sea in about an hour. So come on" the mans voice now more demanding as he gave her arm a tug. The look on Jeanne's face was showing much irritation from the man not taking no for an answer and the fact he was being forceful now causing her sweet act to slowly disappear. Cloud could tell that at any moment she would launch a powerful fist at the stubborn guard, an act that would not go well while still being surrounded by the enemy.

"That's enough" Cloud would cut in, hoping that a warning from a fellow officer would halt his advances on Jeanne but instead caused the situation to worsen as the guards attention was now on him, the anger coming from him was obvious from the look that was given to him.

"Who the hell do you think you are commanding me like that?" the guard spat out, his grip on Jeanne not loosening.

"You really think this is the way a Shinra guard should be behaving? We are here on business, not forcing young women against their will to go on dates" Clouds eyes were drawn away from the guard and onto Jeanne, unable to keep himself from feeling a bit enraged by how one of his friends was being handled. But having taken his attention off of the guard was a mistake that should not have happened; before Cloud could look back at the guard he felt a large amount of pressure against the side of his helmet.

The guard had thrown a powerful right to the side of his head which caused him to stumble backwards a bit. His head spinning slightly from the impact, he then regained his focus and saw that Clive was not trying to hold back the guard who no longer had Jeanne in his grip.

Clive could be heard trying to calm the guard down verbally as he held him back but suddenly even his voice came to a halt. There was an eerie silence on the boat, Cloud looked to see that Jeanne was looking at him with widened eyes and her hands covering her mouth, the guard now staring at him with the same amount of surprise as Jeanne and Clive an expression of dread on his face.

Cloud wondered what everyone could be possibly staring at, maybe he had been more injured by the punch than he had thought? But he instantly knew the answer as to why he had become the center of attention of the three once he noticed something on the ground next to him. There on the metallic floor laid his helmet, knocked off by the assault of the guard.

"It's Strife!" the guard's voice rang out across the docking bay of the resort for all to hear.


	11. Chapter 11

Confusion was the best term to use to describe the atmosphere that spread around the harbour of the small beach resort as a lone voice yelled out a name that many had heard on both television and radio many times before.

The announcement of Cloud Strife being on board the ship that had just crossed the ocean from the port of Junon caused the attention of every Shinra guard to be guided to the upper deck of the ship. There, standing with his back to crowd down below was the man with one of the largest bounties Shinra has ever placed on a lone person. The stories that were spread out to the public about him and his group were mostly false or over exaggerated, being stories of theft, violent muggings and murder. It was true that the group of five weren't the most liked bunch of people in Midgar by their appearance and it was true that they did steal mako from Shinra and in the process have taken out guards and soldiers that got in their way, but to go beyond that was nothing more than lies to put fear into the citizens and make it easier for their capture as they were now public enemy number one.

"Damn it" Cloud said through gritted teeth as his mind worked rapidly to figure out how to get out of this. Finding it hard to think over the yells and screams from the people below as they ran away from the harbour, he watched as Clive threw a punch to the back of the neck of the guard who gave away their cover, knocking him out cold. Gunshots streaked by Cloud as the Shinra force below started to rain bullets on him, luckily their aim not being as well as it should be and not one actually hitting their target. Cloud walked away from the railing and could hear the sound of many footsteps against concrete coming from the harbour, the crowd of guards starting to run back into the ship.

"What now?" Clive asked rather calmly as he removed his helmet only to place a cigarette into his mouth and light it, the expression on his face looking of pure enjoyment as it had been a while since his last smoke.

"I say we beat em all and go get the others" Jeanne piped up as she began to put her hair back into her twin pigtail style. Cloud bit down on his bottom lip slightly as he started to ponder, it was true that a group of Shinra operatives that big would pose a problem, but if they could get to their weapons from below the deck, then they could easily fight them off.

"Guess we have no choice in the matter" Cloud would say rather reluctantly as he didn't want to cause a commotion at least till they had saved their friends.

"We need our weapons before we can do anything else and they are standing between us and what we need" Cloud said with a small shrug, his words bringing a large smile to Jeanne's face as her eyes glistened with excitement.

"About fucking time!" she exclaimed with a clap of her hands. Clive seemed to be off in his own little world again before speaking up.'

"So how exactly are we going to get down to the lower deck with all of those guards coming up the only entrance to the top deck?" his question causing Cloud to realize that he did have a point. His eyes searched around and confirmed to him that there was indeed only one doorway off the top deck, the very one where any minute at least two dozen guards will appear from and start shooting at them.

"Hey! How about down here guys?" Jeanne's voice could be heard from a bit of a distance away. Cloud and Clive hadn't realized that she had left them and was now knelt down over a metal grating that lead down to the lower cargo hold below. The two men walked over to her and peered down past the grating and saw the group of gun wielding Shinra guards running underneath them at least 15 feet below, all running towards the door the led up to upper deck.

"Hey, good catch kid" Clive said with a small smirk as he started to look around at the metal grating for a way of lifting it up, missing the less than flattering face making that Jeanne made at him for calling her the nickname she hated so much. The three quickly felt around the flat metal surface till they found the separation in the metal they were looking for and opened the passage to the lower section of the ship.

Once by one they jumped down the floor below, each one creating a loud thud against the metal surface below which echoed in a low tone in the large cargo hold. Cloud looked at the stairway that the guards took to go to the upper deck of the ship and saw that not one of them remained behind.

"Where did they go?!" they could hear a frustrated guard yell out from above them, not realizing that the three were right beneath their feet. Cloud ran through the mess of crates that were stacked all over the place, finally reaching the hiding spot where they had hid their weapons earlier when they first boarded the ship. Cloud grabbed the large buster sword and placed it on his back, throwing Clive's twin daggers and Jeanne's guns to the two who caught their weapons, a look of relief on their faces as they had felt practically naked without them.

"Remember, only kill if need be. Just try and knock them out, alright?" Cloud ordered to the two, Clive giving a small nod of his head while Jeanne rolled her eyes before puffing up her cheeks.

"You're such a fun killer you know that Cloud" she would say before taking the safety off the rifle.

"Go and search every inch of the ship! We can't let them get away!" the head guard yelled out to the small army of guards that continued to look all around the top of the ship in hopes of finding the wanted rebels. The guard who spoke out to the rest wasn't given even a second to react before a loud explosion erupted from below his feet as he was standing on the grate the group of three had escaped through, sending the guard flying backwards and slam against the metal wall of the bridge of the ship, instantly being knocked out.

The rest of the guards turned their attention to the now smoking hole in the middle of the ships floor, only to see three figures jump out from the hole and at travel at least ten feet into the air, almost hidden completely in the rising smoke.

All guns were aimed up at the three figures, ready to fire and execute the opposing rebels when suddenly the air was filled with an odd sounding gunfire, almost like multiple shots all fired at once but the shots didn't come from any of the guard. From within the smoke that continued to rise up into the sky, bullet sized green streaks of light showered down upon the guards, each one hitting their target of the Shinra manufactured guns.

The instantaneous attack caused the guards to lose their holds on their guns, immediately afterwards the sound of both Cloud and Clive landing down on the metal floor heavily was heard before they emerged from the smokescreen, rushing forward with their weapons in hand.

Many of the guards attempted to pick up their weapons but failed as the two fighters were too quick, both began taking them out one by one as they knocked them out with the handles of their weapons. Cloud could hear the clicking of several guns, guessing that some were able to recover and grab their guns while he was taking out the others. He quickly stopped on the spot and held his sword behind him, a sudden force of wind started to circle around him as he held his position. The force of the wind being as strong as it was pulled the unconscious guards from the boats surface along with the helpless guards who tried to fight against the force but were sucked into the tornado that continued to circle around Cloud. With ease Cloud swung his sword forward to cause the tornado, along with the guards within it, to get launched out to the ocean water. The tornado slowly faded away to nothing, causing the guards to fall into the water below.

"Come on, lets get to the helipad before we lose them" Cloud instructed as he placed the large sword on his back.

The three jumped off the ship and landed down on the harbour. Not wasting a second they all broke out into a run as soon as they hit the solid ground, running in the direction they had seen Hojo and his guards had gone.

"Once we get them back, I am gonna beat that shrimp for causing so much trouble" Jeanne would say in a matter-of-fact tone but with a grin that showed she was merely trying to hide her feelings of missing the know-it-all boy.

Their surroundings of scared people were completely ignored by the three as they continued to run down the dock, the sense of hope and excitement building up with each step they took as all they could think about was the fact that Rem and Axel were only a few seconds away from being rescued and would come back with them to the hideout to continue their pursuit to taking over Shinra.

A question started to run through his mind as Cloud continued to run without any sign of slowing down, what exactly did Hojo want with Rem and Axel? He had already experimented on them in the past and labelled them his failures. Perhaps Hojo had completely forgotten about the past experiments he did on the five, or maybe he realized something about his failures that he required for them to be used again to see if his experiments were truly failures.

Being so deep in thought, Cloud hadn't even realized that the trio had reached the heliport, the only thing bringing him to this realization was the sound of the helicopter engine coming to life not far from him as the propeller of the aircraft started to spin. From where they were they could see the guards lifting up the two caskets to place them into the helicopter, Hojo standing near by as he watched the four guards, lecturing them on how he wondered why the Shinras higher ups would have picked such dimwitted fools to work under him.

"Hojo!" Cloud yelled out, successfully catching the attention of both the professor and the small group of guards. The four guards looked over at Hojo to see what they should do, wondering if dropping his experiments was an action that would get either an insult from the professor or a glare that would be followed by a 'you're fired'.

The site of three weapon wielding newcomers would cause any fighter to at least hesitate or show some kind of fear, but instead the professor showed the complete opposite as the ends of his mouth curved into a rather pleased grin.

"Just as I planned" the hunched over doctor muttered to himself before the group of three came within a few yards of the awaiting helicopter, their weapons now held in a threatening manner and caused the guards to almost drop their cargo as they too felt that grabbing their weapons was a must at the moment.

"Don't bother you imbeciles" the professor would say with a small sneer before his eyes were focused on the three before him "They won't do anything to hurt us" Hojo said rather confidently, not moving an inch from where he stood, his hands still linked with one another behind his back.

"You really think so?!" Jeanne yelled out angrily as she aimed her rifle at the professor, looking through her scope to see that the facial expression of Hojo hadn't changed, a site that caused Jeanne's fury to increase even more/

"Jeanne calm down" Cloud instructed as he held out a hand in the way of her scope. Jeanne looked up at Cloud with a look of disbelief before angrily swinging her rifle to her side.

"Are you kidding me Cloud?! He's right there! The bastard that put us all in the state that we're in! The one who caused all of us to live the way we do and you want me to just stand here and do nothing?" Jeanne ranted, only to get complete silence from Cloud, noticing that his gaze was still on the professor. The look on Clouds face was a good enough answer to her to make her stop, seeing that in his eyes he too was fighting off the urge to kill the man before them.

"What are you doing with our friends Hojo?" Cloud demanded from the professor as he stood his ground, a scene that seemed to cause Hojo to merely let out a small chuckle.

"A simpleton like you would never understand the research that I am doing, so there is no point in explaining it to the likes of...failed experiments" the doctors voice filled with superiority while he spoke, letting out yet another small chuckle before turning his back to the three and calmly made his way to the helicopter.

"Come on now, load them into the helicopter already, we don't have all day you idiots" Hojo would hiss out at the guards who stood by with nervous looks on their faces, wondering how the professor could be so calm with the enemy being at an advantage by having their weapons while they themselves had their hands full with the heavy containers. Even over the sound of the helicopter propeller spinning rapidly overhead, the sound of a gunshot was heard followed by a small bullet sized hole being formed into the metal side of the aircraft only inches away from the professor's head.

"You bastard! Don't go thinking you're running away, not after all you have done!" Jeanne yelled out as she still held out the smoking gun which was now aimed at the back of Hojos head. Hojo stopped just short of taking a step into the side of the helicopter and turned around to face the three threats.

"Tell us what you plan on doing with them Hojo" Cloud repeated out loud as he too was on the verge of attacking the brittle looking man. Hojo let out a somewhat frustrated sigh as he brought his hand to his forehead.

"You low intelligence fools, I already told you there is no point in telling it to people like you who would never understand my research" his eyes looked at them through his glasses, his face forming yet another eerie grin "How about instead I show you what it is that I am working on"

"What does he mean exactly?" Clive asked Cloud in an almost whisper, only to make Cloud give a small shrug in response to his question.

Hojo turned to look at the pairs of guards that carried the two metal coffins "you four, leave the subjects here and leave, I have no more use for you" as odd of a request as it was, the four guards gently placed the two containers onto the ground and backed away.

"This will prove to be a good test for my research, be sure to give me good results numbers 412, 438 and 159" Hojo would say rather mockingly to the three, all of them knowing exactly what he meant by those numbers. They were the numbers of the professors tests subjects, rather than referring to them by name he would call them by numbers since he didn't see his test subjects as people or humans but rather his own property and play things.

"So he does remember us" Cloud thought to himself as his grip on his sword tightened.

His hand reached into the pocket of his lab coat, pulling out a small remote which the professor instantly pointed in the direction of the two containers containing Rem and Axel. With a push of a button the two coffins let out small beeps of confirmation before the glass tops slowly rose upward to release what was inside.

A cold air come from the two metal boxes as steam erupted from within, the two figures slowly getting to their feet and stood on the spot like statues, not moving an inch as they were still half hidden within the coverage of the steam. Once the steam was cleared from the area, it was indeed both Axel and Rem who stood before them, a site that caused a sense of both relief and happiness to take over the three which was slightly taken away from them as they noticed the emotionless expressions of the pair.

"Kill them" the professor commanded out to the two with the same sneer he had on his face earlier.

Why was he commanding them like that? Surely he had gone crazy if he were to think that Rem and Axel would do anything he would tell them to do. Expecting the two to turn around and take out the professor themselves, Cloud was almost unprepared for what was about to happen next.

Shortly after Hojo had made his command, Rems hand grabbed onto the katana that was latched to her side and rushed forward at such a speed that most people would only see her as a blur of red and black. If Cloud had reacted only a second later he would surely have died from the attack that was launched upon him, but being as quick as he was, he was able to use his buster sword to block the attack of Rem that was aimed right for his chest.

"Rem! What are you doing?" Clouds voice filled with much surprise as he looked at her while their swords were in a struggle to see which one would over power the other, her strength proving to be more powerful than the last time he trained with her. There was something odd about her, it was the look on her face, it had no emotion to it, almost lifeless.

"Axel! Snap out of it!" Jeannes yell catching Clouds attention, looking over to see Axel throwing a powered up punch at Jeanne with his robotic glove, missing its target as Clive grabbed the girl and pulled her out of harms way as the attacking Axel made contact with the ground where she stood less a second ago, a large crater created from the impact.

Hojo watched from the helicopter, a small smirk on his crooked lips formed as he watched the battle between friends begin.

"To Nibelheim" he would order to the pilot of the helicopter who nodded in confirmation before adjusting the controls, causing the machine to rise up into the air. Clouds attention was taken away from Rem as he watched the helicopter flying off from the heliport, leaving him with even more questions than before. The force of Rems sword pushing against his brought him back to the task at hand as he blocked yet another attack that was made towards him.

"What the fuck is going on?!" Jeanne could be heard, her voice cracking slightly as tears streamed down her cheeks while dodging yet another attack from the boy who showed no sign of holding back from killing his target.


	12. Chapter 12

"Axel! Snap out of it already!" Jeanne pleaded out as she dodged to the right, avoiding the powerful swing of the boy's mechanical gloved arm. Her runners roughly skidded against the ground to bring herself to a halt, her tear filled eyes looked into his as she looked at him, seeing not even the slightest amount of emotion in the set of eyes that hid behind his square framed glasses.

The two had their fair share of verbal fights in the past over petty little things and even arguments that would last for days, but they never brought it to the point of actually harming one another physically, a point that didn't seem to matter to Axel at this moment.

Axel reacted instantly to his missed attack and placed his open palm on the ground to support himself as he brought his feet off from the ground. His right boot gave a loud 'whir' as it began the process of inhaling air through the small vent on the back of the heel.

"Jeanne! Watch it!" Clives words rang in her ears as she watched Axels right leg propel at her at a fast and powerful speed as he was still in his hand stand position, the burst of air coming from the mechanical boot giving it enough power to break a brick wall like it was nothing.

A loud, sharp clang of two metals hitting one another pierced the ears of everyone in the area. Standing in front of Jeanne was a struggling Clive who held his twin daggers before his chest in a defensive cross fashion, beads of sweat dripping down his face as he struggled to hold his ground while Axel continuously delivered kick after kick to his guard, each kick as powerful as the next.

A second clash of metal against metal rang out throughout the heliport as the swords of both Cloud and Rem met. The two held their ground as they were now locked in a power struggle of who would push who back. Clouds eyes shifted for only a second to the scene of Clive blocking off Axels attacks while Jeanne stood behind him a few feet away, looking as if she couldn't move as he body slightly shook on the spot.

But taking that second to check up on Clive and Jeanne proved to be a mistake as it distracted him from the battle he was in, giving Rem a chance to apply enough force to cause Clouds buster sword to veer off to the right and slam against the floor to her right. Being surprised by the sudden movement of the red head, he wasn't prepared for the right kick that was aimed at the side of his head, causing him to stumble backwards. A high pitch ring filled his ears from the impact of Rems kick, his head throbbing in pain but opened his eyes in time to see the blade that was thrusted straight for his neck. He quickly ducked and out of pure instinct landed a right powerful punch to Rems stomach.

He could tell the punch he landed on her hurt from the small gasp that escaped her partially opened lips and how her body staggered backwards as she leaned forward. But the act of injuring her didn't just hurt her; Cloud suddenly felt his heart ache and his stomach lurched from just knowing that the pain she was currently feeling came from him.

"I am…sorry Rem" he muttered quietly as the grip on his sword tightened even more, his hatred for both Hojo and Shinra growing even more as he now had this to add to the list of reasons for how they affected his life. They betrayed him at the drop of a hat, experimented on his body against his will, made his life a living hell by making mako energy a dependent substance for him to keep living and labelled him and the others as some kind of menace to society in the eyes of the public. Now he is forced to fight against two of the only few people that he had come to see as friends.

The stumbling Rem seemed to have caught her balance rather quickly, placing her feet steadily on the metal floor of the heliport and rushed towards him with her sword ready in hand, the same blank expression on her face as Axel.

"Th..they must be under some kind of mind control! They have to be!" Jeanne cried out while her feet still refused to budge, holding her on the spot as she watched Clive take on Axels continuous attacks. Clive started to show that the blows landed upon his guard was having its toll on him, his body taking a step back as he felt his footing starting to give away.

"Jeanne! Do something instead of just standing there!" Clive's words coming out from behind his clenched teeth as he started to feel the pain of Axels kicks coursing through his hands, his arms starting to become weaker and weaker with each blow.

"I...I can't" Jeanne choked out as she collapsed to her knees as the tears continued to flow down her cheeks.

"They…I can't hurt them" her words caused Clive to let out a frustrated grunt as he took another blow from Axel, one that was able to break his criss-cross knife guard. The attack caused him to stagger backwards just a few feet so that he was now standing side by side with her.

"Look, if you don't do something then we'll all be dead. Do you want that? To have Rem and Axel being…under some kind of mind control by Shinra along with me and Cloud killed?" it looked as though his words struck something within the girl, her eyes widening slightly more in realization.

Without so much as a flinch of hesitation, Axel rushed forward as his left glove gave off a low hum readying itself to let out a burst of compressed air to add power to the punch that was about to be launched at Clives chest, a punch that would easily shatter ever rib in his body and possibly his spine along with them. But to replace the noise of multiple bones shattering, the air was filled with four loud gun shots. Axel's body halted instantly in midair and crashed to the ground, a freshly made bullet hole in each of the robotic limbs.

Clive turned to look over the younger woman who had just saved him from a possible death punch, seeing her now holding her rifle with her eye pressed against the scope.

Her legs shook violently, tears continued to stream down her face and her lip quivered lightly but even with her obvious signs of weakness, Clive knew that it must of took all her energy and will power to do what she had just done.

"Thanks kid" Clive said as he walked over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder to give her some kind of comfort to stop her shaking.

"I told you to stop calling me a fucking kid Clive" Jeanne said as she used her arm to rub away the tears that still trickled down from her slight bloodshot eyes.

"Yeah yeah, I know" Clive would say rather dully before the sound of swords clashing quickly got his attention to the other battle going on on the other side of the heliport, seeing Cloud dodging the sword attack of Rems katana.

"Rem stop this!" Cloud said in an ordering tone, in hopes that the sound of him being so strict and demanding would make her listen to him but instead the red head continued to attack with swing after swing.

"When did she become such a lazy sword fighter?" he thought to himself as he started to pay attention to the style she was using. Her swings were too random for the style she usually used; it was like fighting someone who had just picked up a sword for the first time.

"Cloud! Hold on, we're coming!" he heard Clive yell out from behind Rem, seeing the pair running towards him.

"Stay back!" Cloud responded back without taking his attention away from his opponent, causing the two to stop in their tracks with looks of curiosity on their faces. His sword met with hers as they were now in yet another power struggle of clashed weapons, his face only a foot away from hers. Her lifeless eyes were hard to read, he couldn't even tell if she was even conscious.

"Come on Rem, don't tell me they got you" Cloud muttered but his words didn't seem to affect her willingness to fight him as she then spun around to his right to cause his sword to go forward and hit the ground while she stood on his left with her katana held above her head, ready to strike down the blonde.

The thin bladed weapon began to swing downward upon Cloud, but was quickly halted by him as he reached up and grabbed her left arm. In less than a second, Clouds free hand grasped onto her throat and used his right leg to trip her, causing to her slam to the ground with a loud thud against the metal surface.

With Cloud still holding Rem down against the floor and his hand wrapped around her throat, he couldn't help but sense that all of the fight had left her. Perhaps she was still in there and now that her body was in such a weakened state she had more control over herself.

"Cloud!" he heard Jeanne yell out to him, her voice becoming fainter and fainter in his head as his eyes widened from what he started to witness, his eyes looking down at her as she stared back up at him with her emotionless face.

What happened next was enough to stop Jeanne and Clive both in their tracks. Jeannes mouth slightly opening to take in a breath as she felt her heart stop, Clives cigarette fell out of his mouth as he too had the same expression of surprise and horror as they both watched Cloud pick up his sword from the ground next to him and stand up onto his feet, only to bring the massive blade down into Rems chest.

"Cloud….no!" Jeanne cried out as she watched Rems final breath escape her lips before her body completely relaxed, her life extinguished right before their eyes. Rage started to fill within Jeanne as she started to bolt towards Cloud, her fist already turned into a fist as she wanted nothing more than to lay a beating on him. But his next action wasn't to intercept the oncoming girl, his attention now focused on the figure of Axel who seemed to be struggling to get up from the earlier attack, the weight of his mechanical gloves and boots preventing him from getting up.

"Cloud! You fucking idi…." Was all that came from her before she skidded to a stop, watching as Cloud lifted his hand up to point towards Axel.

A green materia that rested within his sword shun brightly before a burst of electricity erupted from his hand and hit his target. Axel withered and contorted in pain once the attack hit, the gloves and boots adding to the destructive power of the attack as they began short circuited and increased the voltage of the attack. The electric attack came to a halt, Axel's now lifeless body lying in a smouldering heap.

"What have you done?" Clive questioned quietly, his eyes slightly burning as he watched the now smoking torso, his heart racing as the anger in him too started to rise.

Lowering his hand Cloud stood silently on the spot, a mere two feet away from the body of Rem. He opened his mouth to speak but before he could get a word out to explain himself, he was caught off guard by a fist from Jeanne to the right side of his face causing him to fall backwards. He was about to get up but was knocked back down against the metal floor by the short girl who jumped onto him and started delivering blow after blow to his face as tears continued to drip down from her eyes.

"Why the fuck did you do that?! We could have saved them!" she cried out as she delivered one final blow to Clouds cheek before Clive intervened to wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her off of Cloud.

"Let me go Clive!" she warned as she struggled to get out of his grip.

Clive remained silent as he kept the raging Jeanne from attacking Cloud once again, his eyes scanning the blond as he started to get up. Cloud used his arm to wipe away a stream of blood that trickled down from the corner of his mouth, letting out a small groan of pain.

"Why?" was all that Clive said to the one who he thought was their leader, Jeanne now struggling less as she started to give up on trying to break free. Both waiting now silently, wanting to hear Clouds explanation of why he had just killed the two people that they were out to save.

Cloud looked at the two, not liking the look they were giving him at the moment, almost like they were facing some kind of monster. He then picked up his sword and swung it onto his back before looking down at now dead body of Rem.

"You can choose to believe me or not, that is up to you…..but the fact is these two are not Rem and Axel. At least, not the real Rem and Axel" Clouds words causing the anger to leave both Clive and Jeanne, their anger now replaced with curiosity.

Clouds attention did not leave the lifeless body of Rem, his eyes more focused on one feature that caused Clouds stomach to give off a sickening feeling. On one side of her head her hair color was as bright red as ever but on the other, a dull grey had started to take over and the side of her face showed signs of decay.


	13. Chapter 13

An eerie silence had blanketed over the small heliport of Costa De Sol, the three figures stood alone on the metal platform with the two motionless bodies of Axel and Rem laying lifeless near their feet.

"Wh…what do you mean 'not the real Rem and Axel'? Just look at them Cloud! It's our friends and you killed them!" Jeanne's fury was still very present even after Cloud gave his reason for executing the two friends who they fought with only moments ago, the only thing holding her back from pouncing the blond for yet another attack was the arms of Clive who held onto her.

Clouds eyes were fixated on the young girl, seeing her so angry was something new to him and even to him, was a very scary scene to behold. His eyes then shifted down the corpse of what was once Rem, his attention on the grey strands of hair that moved lazily in the wind.

"Come here and look at Rem" Clouds voice was rather demanding since he could see the lack of trust that was on the faces of the two people that was left of his group of friends.

Clive scanned the supposed leader of the trio for moment before moving his cigarette from one corner of his mouth to the other, giving a slight nod before looking down at the twin pigtailed girl who still remained in his lock hold.

"Lets give him the benefit of the doubt, if he truly was against us and wanted us dead he would have done so a long time ago. He must have had his reasons" Clive muttered to Jeanne in hopes of calming her down. A look of contemplation was on Jeanne's face, a look that was very uncommon for the girl but Clive's words seemed to get through to her as her body relaxed in Clive's arms and her breathing steadied.

"Let go of me Clive" she said rather quietly, the look of sadness still on her face. Cloud couldn't blame her though, she had just watched two of her friends killed right in front of her by the man who she followed alongside for the past year and came to trust more than anyone else she knew.

The two cautiously walked over to Cloud, Jeanne letting out a small whimper as she got close enough to see the body more clearly. The look on her face was almost peaceful and calm, but both Clive and Jeanne noticed instantly what it was that Cloud was trying to show them.

There was little left of her bright red hair as it had almost completely turned grey, more than half of her face seemed to be a bit decayed. A startled scream came from Jeanne as she quickly moved close to Clive and held onto his arm, tears once again starting to lightly stream down her face.

"What….what happened to her Cloud?" Jeanne asked in a demanding tone.

"Is this why you killed her?! Because she was already dying?" she questioned him in hopes that this was the case, but her sense of hope left her as she witnessed Cloud shake his head to reply to her question.

"You said they weren't the real Rem and Axel, what did you mean by that?" Clive cut in as his own curiosity was starting to get to him on what Cloud had meant.

The very sight of Rem and her condition brought back many memories of the past from not so long ago, memories that he wished he could forget. He let out a small exhaust of air escape his lips before he started his explanation.

"Back before we all met, when I was a guard for Shinra, I had seen cases like this before. Within the company there was a professor named Hollinder, a man who was trying to perfect the process of cloning so Shinra could create an army of high class fighting Soldiers" he started off, his eyes filled with a sense of pain as he began to relive those painful memories as he spoke.

"At the time there were only a few first class soldiers, most of them had left Shinra and joined forces with Hollinder after he had left the company himself. Using his knowledge of cloning, he cloned the soldiers that joined him in efforts of taking down Shinra, but there was one problem with the process. The experiments that were done on Soldiers had a side affect called 'degradation', a case that was hard to cure and was passed on to the clones that Hollinder created"

"Wait" Jeanne cut in to interrupt him from continuing "so these two are actually clones of our friends?" her eyes looked at him with eagerness inside of them, a large smile forming on her expression as Cloud confirmed it with a head nod. It looked as though Jeanne was about to burst out into tears once again, but what happened next was completely unexpected by the blond as Jeanne suddenly rushed forward and leapt almost three feet into the air, wrapping her arms around his neck, burying her face into his shoulder.

"Cloud! I am so sorry, I thought….I thought you went all nuts on us and..and…it felt like my entire world came crashing down when I saw you..." she started to ramble on, feeling nothing but horrible for the thrashing that she had given him minutes ago. Her words were put to a halt as she felt a hand placed on her shoulder, this action alone sent a wave of calmness and comfort over her as she looked up at the much taller man who was looking down at her without the slightest bit of anger in his eyes.

"It's fine Jeanne, from what you saw I don't blame you in the least bit" his words causing the girl to give a small smile before letting go of him.

"So if the clones are starting to go through this…degradation, does this mean if Axel and Rem are alive they too are going through the same process right now?" Clive questioned as he walked up to the still smoldering corpse of the clone of Axel, looking the body over as he found it hard to notice if the body was also degrading since the body had already been charred too much to notice.

Cloud shook his head "Most likely not, from what I saw back then the clones seem to go through the process a lot quicker than the original" he explained but was then cut off by Jeanne who seemed to have a look of realization on her face.

"So…does this mean we are going to end up this way too?" her question caused Cloud to frown slightly, not liking the fact that he didn't have an answer for her to put her mind at ease.

"I am…not sure Jeanne, the experiments done on us could be completely different from the ones done on the past soldiers and perhaps the cloning process itself is causing the degradation of the clones…but I can't say for sure" from this a silence filled the air, Jeanne looking rather worried as she even started to check herself over. Her gaze then went over to Clive, the green haired man sensed her eyes looking over his body and his eyes met hers.

"Well I guess for you we don't have to worry about this...degradation thing" she said before pointing to the cigarette in his mouth.

"Those things will kill you first with the way you puff on them" her words caused Clive to send a fake glare her way before letting out a large puff of smoke from the corner of his mouth.

"Yeah thanks kid" he muttered.

An hour had gone by before the citizens of the small community dared to set foot back onto the harbor area, once hearing the battles coming to an end and calmness had come to the heliport. The group of three had disappeared without a trace, the two bodies still laying on the metal floor which caused a sense of panic and muttering once discovered.

"You see that? The stories are true!" a resident would say out loud.

"They really are murders!" a woman in a small red bikini yelled out, causing the crowd of people to talk amongst each other even louder. The atmosphere starting to fill with panic and fear as they all started to wonder if the group of 'murders' were actually still there in the resort.

"So where do you think Hojo flew off to anyway?" Clive asked as the trio walked across the grassy fields of the prairie like area, leaving the resort of Costa far behind them.

"To be honest, I have no idea" Cloud said following up with a sigh. The professor left them no clue as to where he was heading or even if Rem and Axel were alive, questions that filled his head with frustration and stress.

"Gongaga is said to have a reactor in it, maybe he went there?" Clive suggested, thinking the most obvious places Hojo would have gone to would be ones owned by Shinra. But his idea was soon shot down by Jeanne who walked along side of him with her arms behind her head.

"Gongaga? Didn't that place go 'kaboom!' like a few years back?" she pointed out as she remembered reading in the paper how the mako reactor in Gongaga had exploded, killing many of its residents.

"Oh right….well what about Corel? I heard that one had an accident a while back but they fixed it up so it's running again" Clive making yet another suggestion, but that too was shot down by Jeanne, finding it a bit frustrating that the girl was able to come up with a reason for him being wrong each time.

"It got fixed up, but I heard it's not in use anymore. I read that the people of Corel were super pissed about the whole fire thing caused by the reactor and they refused to work for Shinra after that" her words starting to bring Clive back up to speed as he then remembered that story too back in the newspaper.

"Nibelheim…" was all that Cloud said as he continued to walk ahead of the other two who seemed to have slowed down while talking.

"Hey…isn't that your hometown Cloud? The one that was burned down by that ultra powerful Soldier guy…Sephiroth or something like that?" Jeanne asked curiously, only to get a nod in response.

"Well that would be pretty convenient for us if that is where he is since we were already on our way there" Clive voiced out as he quickly caught up to Cloud, followed closely by Jeanne.

"Yeah but…" Cloud started to say, finding himself at a loss for words when in his mind all he could picture was the charred ruins of what was once his home. He could still remember that day, the hot flames licking up straight into the sky as they burned down all of the homes of Nibelheim, Sephiroth standing at the top of the stairway that led up to the mountain where the mako reactor and Jenova was waiting for him. He then shook his head, erasing the images from his mind to bring him back to the discussion at hand.

"….nevermind. We need that mako and if Axel and Rem are alive, we need to get Hojo to tell us where they are" he said out loud but more to get himself to stay focused on what was important at that moment and not on the past, no matter how much it hurt to return to.

The grasslands suddenly started to change to a more dirt and dust like tundra, the mountains ahead of them stretching high into the sky to show that the journey to Nibelheim would not be an easy one.

"We gotta climb that?!" Jeanne said with a look of disbelief on her face as she stared at the monstrous mountains before them.

"Well we can't go around them since the river is too big for us to swim across. The mountains aren't that bad just as long as we stick to the path leading to the other side" Cloud informed as he had gone through the trails many times back when he was younger.

"Yeah but..come on" Jeanne whined as her head slumped forward, not holding back from showing how much she was dreading this journey. Cloud and Clive continued to walk, Clive grinning with his cigarette in his mouth as they started to go up the mountain path.

"Children are so lazy these days, I am surprised she hasn't asked one of us to give her a piggy back ride yet" at Clives words, he suddenly felt a large weight fall upon his back, a set of arms and legs wrapping around his body.

"Great idea broccoli head! March on!" she exclaimed with a large smile on her face as she pointed up the path while riding on his back, Clive groaning in complaint but continued to follow along side Cloud up the path.


	14. Chapter 14

"How much longer is it till we reach the other side Cloud? We must have been walking nonstop for like 2 hours now" Jeanne whined as she sluggishly followed a few feet behind Cloud and Clive as they walked along the train tracks that led through the mountains and led to the mako reactor to Corel.

"You have no reason to complain Jeanne, I carried you for over half of this stroll" Clive said without looking back at her, missing the tongue that was stuck out at him from behind his back.

"Yeah well….it's still a long walk even at half way" she continued to complain as her feet shuffled against the metal tracks, her eyes now looking down at the bottomless canyon below, seeing only a sea of white mist only a hundred yards below. Her eyes then looked up at the two males who continued to walk ahead of her, a sigh escaping her before picking up on her speed so she would catch up to them.

"We're just about there Jeanne, at least to Corel. From there we'll need to find a way to get to Nibelheim, from there it might be another day or two if we keep going on foot" Clouds words causing the sound of the footsteps from behind him to quicken, not long after Jeanne coming into his field of vision as she walked backwards in front of him.

"Two days?! Are you serious?!" her feet suddenly stopping as she halted the two from going any further, a look of anger on her face as she looked at the two.

"There is no way I am walking for two days straight!" she then raised a finger at the blond, the tip of her nail only an inch away from his nose.

"You're the leader of us right? Well do some….leader..ing and find a way to get us there faster, Rem and Axel are waiting for us and who knows what Hojo will do to them if we take too long" her demand being rather unreasonable as she was forcing Cloud to come up with some kind of transportation out of no where to get them to their destination.

"Well if you think we can get ourselves there faster, what do you suggest we do?" Cloud asked with crossed arms, interested to hear what Jeanne would come up with.

It looked as though Clouds question caught her off guard when her own demand was turned back against her, her finger lowering slightly as her expression showed that the cogs in her head were working frantically to come up with a solution.

"Umm…well…we could always…capture a monster, Yeah! A flying monster and train it to do as we say and have it take us to Nibelheim lickety split!" her voice sounding as if even she believed in what she was concocting, Cloud and Clive both looking less than convinced that such a thing would be possible.

"that….might actually work" Clouds words causing Jeanne and Clive to look at him like he was crazy, his eyes looking at the two before explaining his reason for agreeing with Jeannes rushed idea.

"Well the monster part is a bit far fetched, but the land around Corel is home to a lot of Chocobo. If we could get our hands on a few of those we could reach Nibelheim about less than half the time it would take on foot" Clouds explanation made Jeanne's idea more of a reality, causing the her to grin and nod her head.

"That's exactly what I said Cloud! See? Where would you guys be without me?" Jeanne would boast as she started to continue her walk down the old train tracks.

"You said? Wasn't your plan to capture a mons.." Clive started to say but was interrupt by the girl as she yelled out "Yep! Chocobos is what I said we need" as she started to leave the two behind.

Clive stared at her as she walked further and further away, only to let out a small laugh and shake his head. The two started to walk along the tracks in the direction Jeanne had gone and eventually caught up to her when they reached the long bridge that would take them straight to Corel.

Clive looked at the bridge with a less than impressed look on his face, his cigarette shifting from one side of his mouth to the other.

"Doesn't look very safe, you sure it will be able to hold Jeanne's giant ego?" he stated with a smirk before getting an elbow to the stomach from Jeanne who stood in front of him.

"Hey, they're called boobs Clive. Geez get it right" she would say before running out onto the unsafe looking bridge. With each step she took the wooden planks gave loud creaks that made it sound like the bridge would break at any moment.

Cloud followed after the young girl, the bridge creaked even louder from his advances as he was much heavier than the almost 5 foot tall Jeanne. He then stopped and turned to look at Clive who seemed to still have troubles getting onto the bridge.

"Come on, if this thing can hold up my weight then it shouldn't be a problem for you" Cloud pointed out as his thumb jerked to the direction of the large buster sword that rested on his back, noting that the unstable bridge was able to hold both Clouds weight along with the one ton sword.

A sense of reassurance seemed to come over Clive as he took his first step onto the bridge, figuring that Cloud was right since Clive himself was the fourth lightest of the group.

"Hey! What are you two waiting for?!" Jeanne could be heard yelling out from the other side of the bridge, having already reached the other side of the canyon.

Once all three had managed to make their way across the fixer upper bridge, they descended down the pathway that lead them to a small, poor looking community.

There weren't many homes in the area; most buildings looking like a bomb had gone off in the area while tents littered around the stone and gravel land. The stores being no more than a few tables set out in the open with their merchandise lazily placed about them.

Their appearance had not gone unnoticed as people began to look over in their direction, some giving looks of disapproval while others merely looked away uninterested. But the shop keepers near the exit of the make shift town was a different story. The three shop owners rushed towards them holding some of their merchandise in hopes of making a sale.

"You there! You look like a fighter with a sharp eye for quality! How about you check out my weapons and buy a few things for the road?" one shop keeper said to Clive who looked as though he wanted to tell the small pudgy man to get lost.

"Miss! I got tones of accessories and jewelry that would look amazing on you, please come this way to my shop" another shop keeper would approach Jeanne who seemed to have caught her interest as Jeanne responded with 'really? What have you got?!' while her eyes glowed excitedly.

Cloud was starting to get annoyed by the pushiness of the store owners as they continued to try to convince them to buy every little thing from them. One store owner was trying to push him to buy an already broken sword guaranteeing him that it was a very valuable antique and would let him buy it for only 10,000 gil, but Cloud cleared his throat to silence the mob and catch the attention of Jeanne and Clive.

"We have no money" was all that he said but it was enough to make the shop owners instantly treat them with less enthusiasm than just a second ago, every one of them making their way back to their table shops to resume their waits for possible customers passing through the town.

"Wow you really are a kill joy aren't you Cloud? Even for complete strangers" Jeanne joked with a laugh as she was amazed at how quick he was able to get the shop owners to leave them alone.

"Comes naturally Jeanne" Cloud said with a small grin from behind his red scarf before walking down the pathway through the tents that took them to where the shop owners had retreated to. Walking through the area, they could feel the eyes of many people following them as they walked but even the sense of awkwardness wasn't able to prevent Cloud from realizing one thing.

"If we're going to be catching chocobos we'll need greens" he pointed out as he remembered that capturing a chocobo would not be an easy task and that having greens for them to eat would make things go more smoothly.

"Greens you say?" he heard a small voice come from his side, turning to see a little old lady standing behind one of the table shops. Wearing a tattered blue dress and a wide rimmed hat, the old woman looked up at Cloud with squinting eyes and a warm smile on her face.

"I take it you dearies are going choco hunting are you?" but before Cloud could answer her question, the little woman disappeared behind the table as she leaned down under the table, coming back up with a box of what looked like oddly shaped cabbages.

"Here you are, these ones are favored by the birds of this area so I am sure they would come to love you quite easily if you feed them these" she said with a smile as she handed them four greens. Cloud reached into his pocket but was halted by the raise of a hand from the old lady.

"Oh don't worry about payments dear, I heard you say that you had no money so they are free of charge" she informed Cloud with the same smile on her face. Jeanne and Clive started to make their way to the exit of the small town while Cloud remained on the spot for a moment, only to pull his hand from his pocket and place 200 gil on the table before her. The womans face changed to a look of surprise but was prevented from saying anything by Cloud bringing a finger to his lips in a 'shh' gesture.

"Don't tell anyone" he said rather quietly with a small smile that was hidden from behind his scarf, receiving a small appreciative smile and chuckle from the old woman.

Cloud turned and walked towards Jeanne and Clive who waited for him at the edge of town of Corel, Jeanne giving him a big grin.

"You're such a sweet man Cloud, who would have thought you had such a side to you?" she said with a small laugh, earning her a small and playful smack to the back of her head from Cloud as they walked out into the field before them.

"I am not that much of a hard ass…am I?" he asked curiously only to get silence from the two, which was ended just as quickly by Jeanne who changed the subject.

"Well at least now we can get some means of transportation to get us to Nibelheim, just like 'I' planned" she said as she emphasized on her being the one who came up with the plan.

The bright blue sky started to change into a dawning red, hours going by as the group of three searched the area for anything that looked remotely like a large yellow, flightless bird.

"Damn it, at this rate we might as well have walked to Nibelheim" Clive said in frustrated tone as he looked down at the grassy plains below as he stood near the edge of a small cliff. His eyes suddenly grew a bit wider in surprise before her grinned slightly, seeing two chocobos only 10 feet below from where he stood.

"Hey guys, over here" he said quietly so the large birds couldn't hear him but loud enough to grab both Jeanne and Clouds attention. Making their way over, they peered over the edge of the cliff to see Clives find of the two chocobos, both pecking down at the grass in search of food.

"Alright! Now all we have to do is give those hungry birds some veggies and they'll be all ours" Jeanne said with hint of excitement in her tone, partially due to the fact that she never saw a chocobo up close before.

Before the group could get to their feet, they noticed something caught the attention of the pair of chocos, something that made them give off a sense of uneasiness as their small wings gave a slight flutter and their heads looked around.

"What's with them? Do they know we're here?" Clive asked as they continued to watch from where they were, but Cloud knew that that wasn't the case since it seemed like the two birds were looking for something in the opposite direction.

Cloud opened his mouth to speak but was stopped by the loud roar that filled the air, sounding like it was coming from all around them.

"Look!" Jeanne yelled out as she pointed at the source of the deafening roar, a large behemoth coming from behind a hill directly across from the pair of chocobos. The two birds let out loud 'warks!' as they were startled by the sudden appearance of the monstrous animal, fluttering their wings as they tried to quickly run away from the beast. But after realizing that the behemoth had them trapped between it and the side of the cliff, the birds let out loud cries of fear as the beast slowly made its way towards its prey.

"Hey asshole!" Jeanne's voice catching the attention of the behemoth, stopping it from advancing anymore towards its meal. Its eyes were now locked onto the girl at the edge of the cliff who stood there with one hand placed on her hip while the other pointed a finger down at the beast.

"Those are our chocobos, so you better leave them alone, got it?!" she yelled out, only to have the behemoth roar back at her in retaliation. The large monster growled while it swung its spiked tail around threateningly.

Cloud stood up and shook his head, followed closely by Clive who gave the all too eager woman a sideways glare.

"You just had to get its attention first, didn't you? We could have just done a surprise attack and take it out quickly instead" Clive pointed out, but Jeanne just gave the green haired man a small wink.

"Where's the fun in that?" she replied back with a mischievous smile


	15. Chapter 15

A nervous 'wark…' came from one of the two chocobos that coward near the wall of the cliff, the large behemoth standing only a few yards away as it stared hungrily at its next meal. But after the yell of a small human reached its ears it suddenly looked up at the top of the cliff, its attention now on the girl who dared to yell out to it in such a threatening manner.

"Yeah I am talking to you, stay away from those chocobos if you know what's good for you" Jeanne's words were pointless since the creature didn't understand a lick of human language, but it seemed to understand that it was being threatened as it let out a small growl escape through its bared teeth while it's large spiked tail thrashed about behind it.

"Well I guess there's no turning back from this now" Clouds said as his eyes looked down at the beast as he took his sword in hand, the massive sword making a low 'whoosh' as he swung it from his back to his front. He remembered back in his days of training to be a Soldier class fighter, the trainers would make them fight these monsters in the simulator and remembered that even against the third and second class Soldiers the Behemoth was indeed a powerful being to be not taken lightly.

"Just remember to watch the tail" Cloud would inform as he recalled watching a group of three third class Soldiers being knocked away like rag dolls in the simulator by one swing of its mighty tail.

"Oh come on Cloud, I handled that giant swamp snake thing like it was nothing. How hard can this thing be?" Jeanne's overconfidence was starting to show on her face as she grinned excitedly and got her rifle ready.

"I don't know Jeanne, it looked like it had already been seriously injured by the time you fought it. Maybe you lucked out against that thing" Clive mocked as he caused Jeannes face to change to a look of surprise and shock which was followed by a powerful punch to his upper arm, the smirk that was on his face not leaving his lips.

"Asshole…" Jeanne would mutter with a pout before looking back at the Behemoth below, her finger now twitching in the excitement over taking on a beast she had never fought before.

Cloud took a step towards the edge of the cliff, noticing the Behemoths eyes switching over to him; a sense of rage and hunger coming from the monster as they didn't break eye contact.

"Jeanne, you stay up here and give us some cover fire. If it breaks through us make sure you do what you can to prevent it from getting to those chocobos" his instructions gaining a 'Are you kidding me? Cover fire?!' from her but before the whining could go on, her voice was suddenly replaced by the sound of rushing wind against his ears as he leapt off the cliff and fell straight down to the ground below, followed by Clive closely behind.

It was a very uncomfortable position to be in, coming between a monster such as a Behemoth and its meal and literally being in the middle of the two. Cloud knew that once they were in the spot they were in, there was no way that the Behemoth would let them leave the area alive.

The large beast took a step forward as it lowered its head, its two horns on its head being readied for its charge while it continued to growl threateningly.

"So….what do you think? Attack head on or split up and see who it attacks first?" Clive asked rather calmly as his hands reached to his belt, taking his twin daggers in his hands to ready himself for the fight ahead.

"Might be better to spread out, it's powerful but not very smart from what I have heard. Focusing on two different enemies from opposite ends might confuse it" Clouds words seemed to make sense in his own mind as his attention never left the large snarling beast before them.

As if on queue, the Behemoth took a large swing of its powerful arm at Cloud who quickly jumped out of the way, feeling the force of its attack affecting the air around him as it pushed him back slightly before his feet made contact with the ground.

"I think it realized you just called it stupid" Clive would joke before taking a step back to avoid another attack from the Behemoth that was now aimed at him.

"Jeanne! Get its attention so Clive can get behind it!" Cloud yelled out to her, only to hear his exact words being repeated by her in a mocking imitation of him, clearly upset with him for not letting her have all of the action.

The sound of the Behemoth growling was soon overlapped by the sound of three gunshots coming from up above, along with 'Hey Fugly! Up here!" Jeanne would be heard yelling from the cliff. The Behemoth looked up at her and let out a frustrated roar, looking as though it wanted nothing more than to jump up at her to rip her apart.

Taking the opportunity given, Clive quickly ran around the distracted monster so that he was now behind it, getting a good view of the large swinging tail that looked as though it had killed its fair share of prey by that part of the Behemoth alone.

"Not too sure if I like the side I am on right now Cloud" Clive yelled out as his eyes followed the swinging motion carefully, watching in case it would make a quick swipe at him.

"Well it's not any better where I am standing Clive" Cloud yelled back as he watched the Behemoth return its attention to him once again, its machete length claws and teeth out in the open to show it was ready to kill.

Cloud held onto his buster sword as he prepared himself, quickly jumping to the left as it took another swing at him with its massive paw. While it was attacking, Clive quickly rushed forward and jumped straight up to avoid its large tail, landing next to its left hind leg to land a few slashes from his daggers. His attack was enough to instantly catch the beast's attention and draw its eyes to its side, its red eyes now focused on the green haired prey. Taking notice of the Behemoths angry glare at him Clive knew that the swinging tail of death was going to be aimed at him, causing him to jump back to where he was before only a split second away from being smashed on the head from a downward attack from its tail.

Cloud now seeing its attention was away from him quickly ran forward and leapt onto its horned head, readying himself to stab the buster sword down into its skull.

The Behemoth let out a roar of disapproval before thrashing its head around, failing to throw off its enemy as Cloud had grabbed hold of its right horn. Cloud suddenly felt the shaking come to a stop, only to feel the pressure around him rush downward, the same feeling of going upward on a very powerful elevator. He looked down and realized the Behemoth had stood up on its hind legs, using its arms to try and swipe him off of its head but Cloud avoided the massive clawed paws by shifting from one side of its head to the other.

"Clive! Take it out!" Cloud yelled out as he tried to hold on and prevent himself from falling off. His eyes couldn't focus as everything was rushing in a blur around him, only seeing the Behemoths threatening arms just in time to get out of the way just barely but the rest of the surroundings around him and the Behemoth was a blur of blue and green.

Clive watched as the towering monster tried its best to get Cloud off of its head as Clouds body was flailed around in the air, feeling a bit intimidated by the size of the beast now that it was standing up so high.

Clive closed his eyes as he concentrated, his arms relaxed by his sides while his hands held onto his blades tightly. His eyes opened up and gave a small instantaneous flash of red before returning back to their original color. The metal blades of his daggers emitted a bright green light as they turned into what looked like 4 foot long blades of pure energy. He then lifted them in front of himself and put them together at an angle in an arrow-head like fashion, his arms lifting the dangerous looking energy arrow straight at the back part of the Behemoths legs. He squeezed the handles of his blades, causing the energy arrow to shoot towards his target; the attack moving so quick it was hard to follow.

The Behemoth let out a roar of pain as it felt the green light slice right through its tail and make contact with the lower half of its legs, the attack cutting at least two feet into the backs of its legs to leave large gashes straight across. The large beast let out a howl of pain before falling to its knees, the little stub of its tail thrashing around violently. Cloud quickly got to his feet on top of the beasts head before using his them to push himself straight up into the air, leaving at least 15 feet of air between him and the Behemoths head.

Without hesitation Cloud swung his sword behind his head, readying himself for the attack which he came to call 'Braver', an attack he hoped would finish off the beast in one last attack.  
He felt his body rush down back towards the ground as he swung his sword downward in a guillotine style fashion, feeling the sharp edge of his sword make contact with the head of the beast before slicing down the middle of its body. Once his feet made contact with the ground and his sword landed against the ground with a loud 'thud!' Cloud jumped backwards in time to avoid being squashed by the falling body of the Behemoth, an explosion of dust, grass and blood erupting from where the beast fell.

Being one to never assume a victory; Cloud still held his sword in hand as he looked at the motionless purple body, seeing steams of blood begin to branch out from underneath the now dead Behemoth.

A 'whoosh' and a 'thud' could be heard from behind Cloud as Jeanne had made her way down from her post once she saw that the fight was over. He felt a pat on the back before seeing her come into his field of vision beside him.

"See? What did I tell ya? There's no monster we can't handle!" she said with a grin as she looked over at him as she leaned in to get more in his face. Cloud would raise a brow at her as he swung his sword behind him so that it would latch onto his back once again.

"What's this we stuff? You didn't do anything" he would say rather bluntly before turning his attention away from her, a small smirk forming on his lips as he heard her retort back 'Wha..Hey! You're the one who said to only give cover fire!' but didn't bother to turn to face her as she spoke.

Even with all of the fighting, noise and violence, the two chocobos still remained near the wall of the cliff. From the combination of nervous warks and slight shaking, it was very obvious they were still scared, possibly more afraid of the three humans who killed the much larger and more powerful looking beast who was about to make them into dinner.

"Awww poor chocos, they're so scared" Jeanne would say as she walked past Cloud, an actual look of sympathy on her face as she heard a small wark come from one.

"Hey, I know what you guys need" Jeanne would say before reaching into her travel purse, pulling out one of the small greens that they received from the old woman back in Corel. The very sight of the plant seemed to calm the birds only slightly, their eyes now focused on the green presented to them in her palm. One of the two slowly brought its head closer to her; a small ruffle of its wings came across its body before getting even closer, its sense of alertness not going down in the least.

The chocobo gave a wark before taking the green in its mouth, giving out a happy loud 'waaark' before leaning forward to give Jeanne an appreciative rub of its head against hers.

"Well check it out, we got ourselves a Chocobo whisperer" Clive would say with a grin just as he finished lighting up a new cigarette, Jeanne turning to look over at him with her tongue sticking out. Her attention then went back to the chocobo who she seemed to win over.

"You're just jealous because I made a new friend and all you got was Behemoth butt" she mocked with a small laugh as she found the chocobos feathers rather ticklish against the side of her neck.

Cloud stepped forward and took the other green that was given to them, making his way to the other chocobo who seemed to have calmed down a bit after seeing how well the other was being treated. Its attention was more on his hand than him as it noticed he had the same food that was presented to its friend only seconds ago, its eyes filled with both excitement and hunger.

"Guess one of us will have to partner up on one. Clive you should ride with Jeanne, the combined weight of me and you might be too much for them" he would suggest as he fed the chocobo, the large bird letting out a wark of happiness before following its partner in expressing its gratitude by rubbing its head against him. He suddenly heard a laugh come from Jeanne, looking over at her to see that she was actually laughing at him.

"Awww look at that! It's like a mother and its baby! With that doo Cloud it probably thinks you're one of them" her words even causing Clive to let out a small laugh while Cloud frowned slightly at her mocking words, only slightly smirking at the joke as he too found it…mildly funny.

Once gaining the approval of the two birds, the group of three were able to get onto the chocobos backs comfortably with their arms wrapped around the necks of the birds in hopes of not falling off.

"Hey buddy, arms are to be kept around the stomach area got it? If I feel any funny business going on any higher than that then you're totally getting pushed off" Jeanne would warn Clive as he got on behind her, wrapping his arms around her stomach as there was nothing to hold onto the chocobo by to prevent himself from falling off.

"Well no worries there kid, there's nothing above your stomach line to actually pull any 'funny business' on" his words instantly got him an elbow to the stomach from the now ticked off girl.

With a slight squeeze of their feet against the sides of the large yellow birds, the two chocobos took off away from the cliff side and towards the large open fields at a speed that would definitely quicken their trip to Nibelheim and hasten their rescue mission of Rem and Axel.


	16. Chapter 16

Trucks, trains, planes and vans have all been vehicles Cloud have been on during his time of being apart of Shinra, but on the back of a chocobo was new to him. The sheer speed of the flightless bird was so quick that the force created by the winds around him was almost enough to rip him right off the chocobos back, the only thing keeping him from flying off was his arms that were somewhat tightly wrapped around the bird's neck. The rushing noise of the wind filled his ears made it hard to hear even Jeanne who was only slightly ahead of him on the chocobo she rode on, just barely able to hear her let out a 'woooo! This is an excellent chocobo!' with one arm raised up in the air while Clive continued to hold on for dear life with his arms around her waist.

Trying his best to look ahead of them through squinted eyes Cloud was able to see the mountains off in the distance, starting to rise up from the horizon of grassy fields. Even at first glance he recognized the mountains which he used to see almost everyday when he lived back at home, it being the very thing he would see through his window when he got up in the morning. But the memories of home were not enough to overcome the sense of anxiousness that filled him as the thought of getting his friends back was more important to him than seeing his old home, the home in which was probably still nothing more than the burnt ruins of what used to be the small mountain village of Nibelheim.

His attention was brought back to the two riders ahead of him, seeing Jeanne giggling rather excessively as it looked as though she was having the time of her life while Clive returned the eye contact to Cloud with a look that spoke out to him 'please let this ride be almost over'. He was about to open his mouth to let the others know that Nibelhiem was coming up soon, but then suddenly realized something that made his stomach suddenly feel like it was made of complete lead.

"H..how do we stop them?!" Cloud yelled out in hopes that the two had heard him and would have an answer to his question. Jeannes giggles were instantly halted and expression changed to a look of realization, her eyes darted over to Cloud, her face telling him already that she had no idea of how to make the two birds stop.

"I thought you knew!" Jeanne would yell back before looking at the chocobo she was currently clinging on to, as if hoping the bird would either just suddenly learn the English language and tell her or that if the bird actually understand them and stop when they wanted it to.

"Just..pull back on their necks!" Clive would instruct the two with closed eyes, his eyes stinging from being dried out by the opposing wind force.

Taking his advice the pair pulled on the necks of the chocobos, finding it rather difficult to do so since the birds themselves were a lot stronger than they seemed. But with much effort they were able to pull their necks and heads back, causing the chocobos to let out loud 'warks!' and their wings to expand out to their sides and their feet to grind against the ground till they came to a complete halt.

"How did you know that would work?" Jeanne would turn to face Clive while asking, her tone telling the others that she was quite surprised that Clive knew such a little tidbit.

"My friends back in Midel would ride them all of the time when I was a kid" he stated with a small shrug.

"Well now that we know how to stop them lets keep going, we still have quite a bit of distance between us and Nibelhiem" Cloud said before giving the chocobo a slight scratch on the back of its head as if to say sorry for being so rough with it moments ago.

But before the chocobos could even lift their feet off the ground to start off on their run again, the birds were startled by the loud roar of a low flying helicopter that passed overhead of them.

"That's...a Shinra helicopter!" Cloud would say as he tried to calm down the chocobo he rode on as it thrashed around in confusion and fear, eventually getting it to stop by pulling on its neck.

Once Jeanne was able to get hers to calm down too she looked at the chopper as it flew in the exact direction they were going in before making their sudden test stop.

"Cloud...I saw the Turks flying that thing. You don't think.." she started to say out loud to the blond with a look of anxiousness in her eyes, Cloud starting to see the idea that Jeanne was starting to form in her head. Usually when the turks were involved it meant that something important needed to be guarded while transporting or someone needed to be killed under the orders of the president.

"Jeanne, don't you dare. We stay under the radar till..." Cloud warned her but his words were ignored as the twin pigtailed girl without hesitation got her chocobo to return to a run again in pursuit of the flying transporter.

"Damn it! Jeanne stop!" Cloud yelled out before getting his chocobo to follow after her. This time the wind didn't bother him as much as it did before, perhaps the determination of catching up to Jeanne and Clive drove his attention away from it. The distance between the two didn't shorten at all, the other running chocobo not getting any closer according to what Cloud could see. In fact it seemed to get further away from him making him guess that Jeanne was pushing the bird to run as fast as it could.

"Jeanne! Stop this now!" Clive yelled out over the combined noise of the wind and the propeller of the flying machine, the helicopter getting closer and closer to them as the chocobo seemed to be running much faster than the speed of the chopper.

"They're on there Clive, I know they are" Jeanne yelled out before using one hand to keep herself from falling off the back of the chocobo while using the other hand to reach behind her and grab the gun from her back.

"Wh...Jeanne! Don't!" Clive cried out as he watched the rifle lit up and changed its shape to that of a rocket launcher. His instincts told him to grab the weapon away from her before she could use it and give them away to the enemy, but the other half of him told him that if he let go of her waist there would be nothing holding him from flying off the back of the bird.

Jeanne rested the launcher on her shoulder as she looked through the scope, her sites and aim on the back propeller of the helicopter in hopes that damaging the back of it would merely cause it to land so they could fight off any enemies that would emerge from the grounded transport and save their two friends inside.

Before anyone or anything could stop the determined girl, Jeanne's finger pulled back on the trigger of her weapon to fire an explosive rocket at the unaware helicopter. But before the rocket could make contact with the back propeller, a flash of blue light resembling that of a crescent shape shot across the air and collided with the missile, causing it to explode before it could make contact with the Shinra vehicle.

Jeanne looked back to see Cloud holding his sword in hand as he started to close the distance between them, a sense of dread filled Jeanne as she started to realize how out of line she was and expected a good talking to later.

Cloud watched as the helicopter began to spin out of control in the air from the force of the explosion, he could only image how hard the pilot must be fighting to keep it from smashing into the ground or even into one of the mountain sides. His eyes suddenly shifted away from the twirling machine once he saw a large metallic object fall out from the open side of the helicopter, the loud sound of metal against earth filled the air as dirt and grass erupted from the ground.

Seeing the helicopter start to regain its composure, Cloud quickly steered the chocobo he rode into the one Jeanne and Clive were on, causing the two chocobos to stumble and veer off course so that now they were hiding behind a large boulder.

Once the chocobos came to a halt, Cloud gave the chocobo an appreciative scratch on the head before jumping off of its back and land on the ground with a loud thud.

His eyes looked over at Jeanne who still remained on the back of the chocobo while Clive, with a look of gratitude on his face, jumped off its back. "Why did you stop me Cloud?!" Jeanne yelled angrily while still sitting on the chocobos back, a tone in which Cloud had never heard her speak to him in. Jeanne was expecting some kind of angered retort back about how stupid of a move she made, she was surprised to see how calm he was as he merely raised his hand to his face and made a 'shhh' gesture.

Even from behind the rock he could hear the engine of the helicopter on the other side of the boulder, possibly looking for the ones who dared to try and take it down. A whole five minutes went by before Cloud could hear the sound of the helicopter become more distant, telling him that they gave up on looking and carry out the mission that was given to who ever was inside.

"Ow ow ow!" the yelling of Jeanne caused Cloud to turn to see Jeanne with a look of pain and anguish on her face as Clive pinched and tugged on her ears quite roughly.

"Next time you pull something like that expect an actual ass kicking, you got that?" Clive warned in a calm tone before letting her go, Jeannes eyes filled with tears caused by the torture that was given to her.

"Alright alright, sorry! Geez" she would say as she rubbed her reddened ears, giving a small pout.

Figuring she was punished enough, he didn't bother to lecture her on her actions earlier but instead looked out from around the boulder to see the helicopter off in the distance, slowly disappearing into the blueness of the sky above the mountains. Letting out a sigh of relief, he then turned to look over at the erupted earth only 100 yards away from where he stood.

"Guess they didn't notice with all of the commotion going on" Clive guessed as he walked up to Clouds side, a cigarette already lit and in his mouth by this time.

"What do you think it is?" Cloud asked as he started to walk over in the metal objects direction, curiosity starting to get the best of him as he wanted to know what exactly the helicopter was carrying.

"Maybe weapons...or more of those clones?" Clives words were the same as what Cloud was thinking, hoping that it wasn't clones since killing the first set was hard enough when they looked exactly like two of the four people he had found himself to care about.

"Yarr! It be treasure and booty matey!" Jeanne joked as she ran by the two, Cloud guessing she was trying to lighten the mood to make up for the way she acted only minutes ago.

Cloud noticed that the woman came to a halt when she came to the lost piece of Shinra property, even from where he was at that moment he could see her hands start to shake as she continued to look down at the small crater.

"Cloud! Clive! Hurry!" she would yell out, causing the two to break out into a run over to her to see what it was that caused her to be acting the way she was.

"Jeanne, are you alright?" Cloud would ask when he got close enough, but fell silent when he saw the very thing that she did.

The hole itself was no more than four feet deep, the rectangular metal case protruding out of it at a 45 degree angle. A small control panel on the side of it flashed different colors with each button it had and a small monitor above it showing numbers and codes that Cloud couldn't even begin to comprehend what they meant. But the one thing that caught his attention more than anything else was the site of the teenage blond boy inside of the metallic coffin, his eyes only slightly open as he looked half awake while he looked up at the trio standing above him.

Cloud looked down at the figure in the metal box, wondering if this was the real Axel or just another clone since the likeness between the two was so uncanny. He then saw the figures mouth open up from behind the glass, the word 'Cloud' being mouthed silently by boy from behind the glass confirmed that this was no clone.

"Lets get him out of there" Cloud said sternly but with a smirk on his face, feeling now one step closer to accomplishing their goal


	17. Chapter 17

Cloud and Clive observed the 6 foot long metal container, trying to make guesses as to how to open the computerized coffin while Jeanne was off a few yards away with the chocobos, making sure that they wouldn't run off and leave them out in the middle of no where without any means of transportation other than their own feet.

"So what do you think? Does it need a code?" Clive questioned as he knelt down to look at the small control panel on the side of the container, finding it rather confusing as the panel had many flashing buttons on it which he had no idea if they would actually open the metal coffin or cause something disastrous like make it self destruct.

Cloud looked at the opposite side of the container from Clive, sensing that Axel's eyes were following the two. Cloud new the boy so well that he could even guess as to what Axel was thinking at that moment, thinking that they looked like a couple of morons who couldn't even open a simple box.

"Sure looks that way from the way it's made, would have been easier if Hojo had just made an open and close button with a big label on it" Cloud said with a small frown.

"But knowing him that would be 'too simplified' and 'unintelligent' for a man of his IQ" Cloud joked before walking over to the side Clive was on and knelt down beside him, observing the small panel to see if there were any kind of hints or features that made the buttons more obvious as to what they do.

"Alright well staring at it is getting us no where and we don't have time for this" Cloud said before walking to the end of container, grasping the hilt of his sword as he looked down at the glass wall between him and Axel.

"You think that's a good idea? If you break it you might be doing more harm than good" Clive warned with a calm tone as he knew what Cloud said was true and also that this was probably the quickest way to get the boy out of his prison.

"Axel! Bring your knees to your chest, I am going to break it open!" Cloud would yell out in hopes that the glass wasn't completely sound proof. In response to Clouds instructions Axel did as he was told and brought his knees to his chest with his arms wrapped around them, his eyes closing tightly from behind his squared framed glasses as he braced himself for what was about to happen next. With a loud whoosh coming from his sword cutting through the air, the large buster sword came down on the coffin, causing a loud metal against metal clash to echo out across the grassland before the sword began to slice right through the glass and metal and eventually hitting the grass and earth under the container.

Axel opened one eye to peer downward to see that not far from his feet was the freedom that he so desired. He slowly started to slide out through the newly made exit of his ex-prison, feeling rather drained and flimsy as he slowly got to his feet.

"You doing alright there kid?" Clive would ask as he saw how hard Axel was working to keep himself from falling over, the boy now holding onto the side of the now empty container to support himself.

"Ye…Yes I believe I am" Axel would so rather quietly before looking up at Clive.

The sense of weakness that took over Axel was very apparent even by just looking into his eyes, a look that made it seem like he was about to pass out and fall asleep at the drop of a hat. It was a scene that didn't sit well with Cloud as he hated to see any of the members of the group in such a state, but he couldn't help but feel relieved to have the young scientist back in their company once again.

"Axel…what happened back in Midgar? We thought you and Rem had died back in that explosion" Cloud curious as to how the pair had survived an explosion of that magnitude and being so close to it.

Axel looked up at the blond and pushed his glasses back up his nose, his hand slightly trembling as he still fought to keep his composure and make his body do as it was told by him.

"The whole thing…it was a setup by Shinra, at least for Avalanche it was" he informed the two, giving himself a moment to inhale a breath of air which seemed to bring his heart rate close to its old healthy self once again, the color of his skin starting to return to his usual skin tone.

"After we got the mako we needed and got to the train station, the train wasn't there, probably took off when the guards saw that Avalanche was making its move. Shinra knew that they were going to blow up the reactor…no...they were counting on them to do it so that they would be trapped and killed by their own handy work" Axel continued to explain before taking another small break to inhale yet another breath of the fresh country air.

"So you were at the train platform when the reactor exploded? But how are you still alive?" Clive asked with his cigarette in his mouth already half burned out. His glance suddenly shifted over in Jeannes direction who was still tending to the chocobos. Clive found it rather odd though that she hadn't said anything since she found the casket containing their head of science, as if avoiding Axel for some reason.

"I had a 'barrier' materia in one of the compartments of my gloves with an amplifier I created connected to it to not just protect its user but instead create a barrier that would cover a radius of four meters, more than enough for all five of us to be protected in if the there were a situation were we would need such protection" he would tell before pushing his glasses up once again

"But even after the explosion of the reactor was finished, the materia was unable to protect us from the falling debris which we were then buried under" his expression suddenly changed to that of one that was rather uncomfortable, Cloud sensing that Axel had been through a lot since that day and perhaps he would rather not relive such events. But even with this in mind, Axel seemed to regain his composure and continue on with his story.

"I am not too sure what happened after that I am afraid…I was unconscious for quite sometime but there were some instances were I did regain consciousness and fortunately for me…" he said before walking over to the panel on the side of the container that was his prison only moments ago.

"I saw the code that Hojo put in to open the compartment for my gloves and boots" he added before pushing in a five digit code into the panel which showed up on the tiny monitor, the monitor now flashing a light green.

Suddenly a drawer like compartment pushed out from the side of the container, showing the contents inside were a familiar set of machine like gloves and boots to match.

"So then Shinra must have found you in the rubble and brought you back to the headquarters….but what for?" he questioned out loud for the others to hear, Clive giving a small shrug while Axel merely looked up at Cloud while putting his customized weapons back onto his arms and feet.

"That's what I was thinking too…from what I can remember they didn't do anything to us the entire time we were under their surveillance. Although I did hear hojo speak of something about Nibelhiem. I know it's not much to go one but that's all I can remember" Axel informed them before his attention was brought to behind the two males, his expression turning into a frown when he noticed the small figure of Jeanne making her way over to them at last. Even from where he stood he could see the look of anger and possible rage in her eyes as she got closer to the group, a sigh escaping him as he started to wonder if she would actually cause an argument with him after only getting him back 10 minutes earlier.

"So…what now? You look like you have something to say" Axel would say when she stopped only a few feet away from where he stood, Cloud and Clive waiting quietly to see how the girl was going to treat him after all they had been through.

"You….have no idea what I went through" her voice rather shaky as she spoke, her hands now turned into trembling fists "I thought you were dead you little…" her words suddenly halted by the action of her arm being pulled back behind her, getting ready for what looked like a powerful punch that was going to be aimed right for Axels head.

But what happened next was rather a surprised to both Clive and Cloud as they watched the girl quickly move forward to the boy who was now bracing himself for the hit, but instead of feeling the pain of a powerful blow to his face he felt a pair of strong slender arms wrap around his neck. His eyes went wide in surprise as he stood on the spot caused by the unexpected hug, his body becoming less tense when he started to feel droplets of water against his neck and shoulder that he could only guess to be tears coming from her.

"You…idiot, such a fucking idiot" she would say with great difficulty as she choked a bit from her crying, her arms still wrapped around him in a death grip intensity.

Even Axel at that moment couldn't bring himself to say something smart-alecky or jokingly to the woman who seemed to have gone through a lot of heart ache since that day the reactor blew up.

"There's no need to cry Jeanne, I am fine alright?" he reassured her in hopes that hearing it from him would halt her tears, but instead he heard a small laugh escape her.

"Of..of course you're ok, you're Axel, the Head of the Science Department of the Rusty Warehouse Military" she joked before releasing him from her arms to use her arm to dry her tears, her expression was a happy one, an expression that Axel never thought he would ever see as a result of his wellbeing. Suddenly a gloved hand clasped onto the teens shoulder, causing him to turn to see Cloud standing right beside him.

"It's good to have you back Axel" he said with a small smile on his face which was hidden behind his red scarf but Axel knew him well enough to know when such a face was being made behind that obstruction.

"Thanks boss" Axel said with a small grin, but before he could say anymore he was cut off by Clive who dropped his almost burnt out cigarette to the ground and stomped out the smoldering end.

"I know we just got you back kid, each and everyone one of us is glad to have you with us again, but we should get going to Nibelhiem. We're not done till we get her back and the sooner, the better" he pointed out to the others "Right, even with Axel back we still aren't finished this" Cloud said in agreement, his glance now going back to Axel.

"You can ride with me, we were only able to get two chocobos to ride" he said as he pointed a thumb over his shoulder at the two birds who were feeding on the grass. Axel gave a less than enthusiastic look at the birds and then back to Cloud.

"Seriously?" was all he said before Cloud would nod his head in confirmation, an answer that made Axel frown as he looked back at the large birds. The four took their places on the backs of the chocobos before speeding off across the grasslands once again, all of them feeling their spirits rather heightened now that Axel was saved and their hopes of saving Rem even greater than before.


	18. Chapter 18

The sky above was starting to fade away from its light blue to a darkening orange as the sun was starting to get closer and closer to the horizon, a sign that the day was starting to come to an end and that anyone who dared to be out during the night should beware as the monsters that roamed in the wilderness were more aggressive during this time since they preferred to hunt for food in the darkness.

"Hey Cloud! Is that it over there?!" Jeanne yelled out him as they rode side by side on the chocobos, her hand extending a finger out to the field ahead of them. Off in the distance a wall of mountains grew taller and taller as they got closer to them, the shadowy silhouette of a small town could be seen at the foot of the mountain which Cloud knew to be what was left of his old hometown.

"Yeah…that's it" he said with a hint of discomfort in his tone. The very thought of Nibelhiem brought about unpleasant memories of his past; of how it was burnt down by the man who he had always seen as a hero who he wanted to be like one day and how everyone was killed that same day.

His thoughts were on those memories but he was pulled back to reality by Axel who gave his midsection a tight squeeze.

"Hey, are you alright back there?" Cloud asked before turning to look over his shoulder, seeing exactly why the boy tightened his grip. His face was on the verge of turning completely white, his expression looking like he was about to throw up. Cloud knew what it was like to be sickened by motion; he had come down with the exact symptoms back in the days of working for Shinra making even the smallest van ride between cities enough him to lose his lunch.

"Just hold on Axel, we're almost there" Cloud informed the poor boy, Axel merely nodded his head before letting out a small ill sounding groan.

After ten minutes had gone by since that point, the four humans plus two chocobos finally reached their destination but something was off about the surrounding area, one that made Cloud blink in disbelief as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing.

"Cloud…..didn't you say your hometown was burned down to the ground?" Clive would question as the four looked at the perfectly normal looking town. Every little bit of it was how Cloud had remembered it but only before the fire; the stone and wooden houses were far from being nothing more than charred remains as the windows glowing from the lit lights from within them, the water tower stood tall and still in somewhat good shape as it has had its share of patch up jobs back when he was a kid.

"Bu..but how?" Cloud stuttered slightly as he continued to look around while he walked into the center of the town, his boots thudding heavily against the stone ground. He could remember everything as clear as day; the sounds of people screaming, the flames so close that his skin felt like it was going to melt and the smoke almost thick enough to choke him to death.

"They….must have rebuilt it all, exactly to how it was before, that has to be it" Cloud thought as he tried to guess, his mind trying to create possibilities of why Nibelhiem was not nothing more than blackened remains of the mountain town.

"It is the most likely possibility Cloud, Shinra is known for covering up its acts of treachery and illegal activity" Axel piped up as he stood beside the still shocked leader.

"Hey you!" Cloud heard Jeanne yelling out, causing him to turn around to see her run over to a man walking out from the small convenience store carry a large bag.

"So what's the deal here? How come this place isn't a pile of ash?" Jeanne asked rather rudely. The man gave her a confused look before looking irritated by her straight forwardness.

"Excuse me but saying such things and making up stories isn't something new comers should be spreading around" the man said before walking off without even a glance back at the four.

An eerie silence came over the four, even the atmosphere around them was completely silent except for the slight amount of wind that came around for a quick second. The very thing to break the silence was Clives voice, Cloud now turning to look over at the green haired male who was speaking to a woman who appeared to be out for a little stroll.

"Excuse me miss, but could you tell me about a fire that happened here a while ago?" he asked only to get a small smile from the woman before answering his question.

"A fire?...well I did light a candle just the other day" she said with a small giggle at her own joke, but then shook her head causing her long black hair to wave around.

"There hasn't been a fire here since….well ever. I am not sure where you heard such a thing" she said as she used her hand to move her hair away from the front of her face to behind her ear.

"A few years ago Shinra sent in a team to look after the problem with the mako reactor in Mt. Nibel and this whole town was on fire shortly after. I remember it because I was one of the operatives in the mission, I remember going into my old house over there to see if anyone was inside while it was burning" Cloud said with a definite tone to his voice as he pointed to the small house at the edge of the right side of the small town.

The woman looked in the direction he was pointing and looked back at him with a look on her face as if she was talking with someone who had just given her a bunch of nonsense. Her eyes then moved over to Clive before she spoke again.

"You might want to get your friend checked sir, I can assure you that this town isn't burned down to the ground as you can see and as for that house…" she said as she looked back at the small abandoned looking home "A single, sweet old lady has lived in there for years. She has had neither children nor a husband, so excuse me for saying this but I think your friend might be missing a few screws in the head" she would say before giving a slight bow before stepping away from them to continue her walk.

The woman left the group to stand in silence once again, Cloud knowing what was going on through the others minds at that moment. They probably started to wonder if Cloud was lying to them the entire time, either that or he was just some nut job who imagined all of the stories that he told them.

"Cloud…"Jeanne would start as she turned to look at him, her voice filled with what sounded like a mixture of sympathy and concern.

"Now…isn't the time to be trying to figure this out" Cloud said out loud to the others as he looked around at the trio.

"Right now our priority is to save Rem, once we do that then we'll get down to the bottom of this, agreed?" Cloud asked as a way of seeing if he still had the support of his group behind him.

"For now…we'll just say that Shinra is behind all of this" Clive spoke up as he pulled a cigarette from his pocket, lighting the end of it before giving a slight shrug.

"In the time we have known each other you have never given me a reason to not trust you. Like you said, we'll figure this all out later" he said with a small grin.

"Y..yeah, Clive's right! Besides, if you truly were nuttier than an acorn tree and were out to get us, you would done it a long time ago while we were asleep" Jeanne would add in to the discussion, Cloud finding her words not all that helpful as she was now making it obvious that she was thinking he was crazy.

"Well there is one fact that proves to me that what you say is the truth" Axels words bringing a glimmer of hope to Cloud as Axel was the one to only point out facts that he knew were correct.

"The fact that you have the same condition as the rest of us proves that you have undergone the same experiments Hojo has done to the rest of us….but then again…." The expression on Axels face told Cloud that the cogs in Axels brain were working away as it seemed he had just realized something. Axel merely shook his head before returning his eye contact back to Clouds.

"No..nevermind, I am sure there is so kind of explanation" Axel would say before looking around at the town, as if to look around to see if the answer to their questions laid somewhere on the outsides of the buildings.

Deciding it was time to change the subject, Cloud looked over at the exit of the town which had a small pathway that led up the mountain.

"The only place I can think of where they would have taken Rem is where they took me to be experimented on" Cloud said as he was now looking at the large mansion on the left of the town, the same eerie looking building where he had escaped from after he was experimented on and held captive.

"Kind of….creepy lookin" Jeanne would say as she looked up at the mansion. Cloud had to agree with her on that comment as all of the windows were darkened with not a hint of light coming from the large building, making it look like an old haunted mansion.

"Yeah well that's where we have to go so just make sure you don't wet yourself while we're in there, can't look weak in front of the enemy right?" Axel would joke while already bracing himself for a punch to be thrown at his arm like always when he got on her nerves, but instead she let out a small laugh before placing her hands onto his back and started pushing him in the direction of the mansion.

"If there turns out to be a flesh eating ghost in there then I'll just push you in the way of it so it eats you first" Jeanne joked while Cloud and Clive started to follow the two.

After reaching the front gate of the mansions yard, the small group cautiously walked up the pathway that lead straight to the front door of the building.

"This is turning out to be a lot easier than I thought, I wouldn't be surprised if a butler were to answer the door and offer us a meal and beds to sleep in for the night" Jeanne would joke, but Cloud found that her awareness of how easy it was to get to the mansion and the fact that an entire army of Shinra guards weren't on them right now was a point to be taken into consideration.

"It does seem alittle quiet doesn't it?" Clive asked Cloud as they walked side by side, but even with everyone else stating the obvious Cloud remained on alert.

"Yeah but don't let your guard down, it is a Shinra owned mansion after all. Also we all saw the turks in that helicopter earlier, they are more than likely inside right now" Cloud warned as he pictured in the back of his mind the lab in which he himself woke up in before making his great escape, possibly Rem being held in one of the mako liquid filled prisons while Hojo did tests with the Turks watching from not too far away.

With the large doorway right infront of them, Jeanne tilted her head a bit as she started to ponder "So…do we just knock? I don't think they'll be too happy to answer the door and find us ready to kick their asses" she said before hearing Axel give a sigh which was obviously directed at her comment.

"Of course you would offer the one action that would be the worst one to carry out" Axel would say before pushing his glasses up his nose so that he could see much clearer through the small square frames of his glasses.

"Our best bet would be to find another way in...perhaps a window?" Clive would suggest as he peered around the outside of the building from where he stood, seeing that all of the windows were filled with nothing but darkness "Seems like no one is on the first floor of this place so it might be easy to pick a window to climb in through"

Thinking Clives idea was the most ideal one, the group split up to find a window that would be easy to get in through to gain entrance into the eerie looking building. After searching for what seemed like minutes, everyone heard the familiar voice of Axel fill their ears through the small communicators.

"Come to the back, I found a way in" was all Axel said before the rest of the group started to make their way to the back of the mansion. Standing in front of a large window, Axel waved the others over to where he stood before looking back at the darkened pane of glass.

"So what's so special about this one Mr. Science?" Jeanne would question with a raised brow and crossed arms, finding it always enjoyable to question him on his ideas since it seemed to annoy him more than anything else.

"Well for one.." Axel started to say before pushing on the window, showing the group that the window was not locked and began to open slightly with the lightest touch "They didn't lock it, if you need that to be explained to you Jeanne" Axel would say to her before she rolled her eyes at his words.

"Good work Axel, did you check to see if the coast was clear?" Cloud asked, hoping that they wouldn't waltz right into a trap that was set for them since an already open window seemed very lucky for them at the moment. But Axel nodded his head to answer Clouds question.

"Yes I used the scanner to see if any heat signatures were inside but it came out negative" Axels words were nothing but good news to him, causing a small smile to form on his lips from behind his red scarf.

"Alright, lets head in then" Cloud instructed to the group before one by one they climbed through the window, disappearing into the darkness of the mansion to leave the coldness of the night behind them.

But even before this point, the four didn't notice of the presence of two figures who stood upon the rooftop of the general store, the two sets of eyes watching their every move before seeing them disappear into the mansion.

"Those are the targets?" a female voice came from one of the hooded figures as her emerald green eyes shon in the moonlight, the much bigger hooded companion turning to look at her and giving a slight nod to answer her.

"I think so...lets see" the large man brought his hand up and started to count each smokie sized finger as he went through his mental list.

"ummm...six..no...five?...yeah five people and...uhhhh...wait, weren't there only four?" the man went on as he sounded dumbfounded, the woman letting out a sigh before speaking up to halt the man.

"Nevermind, you'll just hurt the pea sized brain you have if you keep trying to think" the woman would say before her eyes peered down back at the backyard of the mansion where the four had been standing only minutes before.

"That's a damn shame...that blond guy is really cute" the woman said with a hint of disappointed in her voice as she rested a large scythe on her shoulder with her right hand gripping the wooden staff like hilt, the two disappeared in an instant, not leaving a single trace of their existence behind.


	19. Chapter 19

With loud sounding 'thuds' of his boots heavily making contact with the wooden floor, Cloud peered around at the surrounding area. A frown formed on his lips as he noticed that not a single thing had changed since the day he came to Nibelheim all of those years ago. From what he could see they had entered into the music room of the mansion, the old grand piano still taking residence in the center of the room which was now covered with a thick layer of dust and spider webs weaved between the bottom of the piano and its supporting legs and the furniture blanketed with white sheets.

"This place looks like it hasn't been used in years" Clive muttered with his cigarette dangling from the right corner of his mouth, his eyes now looking up at the stone gargoyle statues at each corner of the ceiling above.

"Hey!" Jeanne surprised everyone with her sudden outburst.

"Isn't this the place where..." she was suddenly cut off by the nod of Clouds head, answering her question in midsentence as he already knew what she was about to ask.

"Yeah…" was all Cloud said before walking his way across the room towards the door that would lead out to the main hallway of the mansion. With each step he took a cloud of dust would erupt from under his boot, causing him to wave his hand infront of his face to avoid it from getting into his eyes.

"This is the same building that I woke up in before going to Midgar" Cloud said as the memories of being in the basement part of the complex were fresh in his mind and yet some parts were still fuzzy.

Once at the door, everyone remained quiet as Cloud pressed his ear up against the wooden door. He could hear nothing coming from the other side of the door, feeling a bit thrown off by how easy all of this was coming out to be. Shinra was usually very thorough when it came to security and with a man like Hojo in the mix the security level should be at least more than just a few guards, to have none what so ever around was rather suspicious to the blond.

"…I don't like this" Cloud said as he stood up straight and rubbed the back of his neck.

"What are you talking about?! This is going great! At this rate we'll get Rem back without even getting a bruise" Jeanne would say with an eager grin on her face. By her right side Axel shook his head before giving the girl a raised brow before speaking up.

"What he means is that it's too much of a coincidence for it to be this quiet, the likely hood of Rem being here is very slim if we were able to break in and not come across a single guard. Either that or perhaps it's all a trap" Axel suggested and caused Jeanne to puff her cheeks in frustration, obviously upset over everyone killing her upbeat attitude.

"Well we won't know until we start looking around" Cloud said as he grabbed the handle of the door, his heart starting to quicken its pace as the suspense was starting to get to him. Perhaps the turks were on the other side of the door, just waiting for them to come in through the very door they were expecting the four to come through. Perhaps the open window was also part of the trap, but there was no way of knowing unless they pushed on through.

Slowly Cloud opened the door which creaked loudly till it was fully open, a sense of dread overcoming Cloud as he knew that if someone were in the room their cover was indeed blown by the noise that echoed throughout the large hall. Taking a few steps forward, Cloud looked around and saw that not one Turk, not one guard, not even a single person was waiting for them in the hall.

"What's the deal? Shouldn't there be some Shinra bastards in here waiting for us?" Jeanne would complain as she too realized no one was in the room with them.

"Maybe they aren't here…" Clive would say rather calmly as he walked up to Clouds side.

"Are there any other places that Shinra owns other than this place?" Clive asked curiously, causing Cloud to frown as he looked downward a bit.

"Yes but…..they are definitely here" Cloud would inform the others. He bent down to one knee and looked carefully at the floor, seeing multiple sets of foot prints in the heavily dusted floor which led from the front door of the mansion and traveled to the stairway that went to the second floor.

"Good eye Mr Detective!" Jeanne would mock before running off on her own towards the stairway, her guns now grasped in her hands as she prepared herself for any enemy that would dare cross her path.

Cloud and the others quickly caught up to her and followed the mistakenly made path of footprints which Cloud noticed went exactly to where he figured Hojo would have taken Rem.

"Once we take over Shinra we should definitely do something about this place" Jeanne would say as she ran a finger along the wall, gathering a large clump of dust on her finger before flicking it off.

"If this place was cleaned up it would make a great place to live" she would suggest but Cloud didn't like the idea as the very building itself had too much of a bad history and carried too many memories that he wanted to forget about.

"Might be better to just destroy it" Cloud said rather bluntly before they followed the footsteps to a door, the very door that led to the room with the secret entrance to the mansions hidden basement.

The loud creak of the door echoed throughout the hallway as Cloud opened the door to the bedroom, the only light filling the room was the pale white light that emitted from the moon from the other side of the window.

"What the hell?" Jeanne would question loudly as she was stumped by the fact that the footprints that trailed into the bedroom stopped right in front of the stone wall pillar on the left side of the room.

"Hmmm…a secret door is the most likely result of this" Axel commented before stepping forward to look at the wall carefully. But before Axel could even make a guess at how to open it, Clouds gloved hand reached over and pushed one of the stones on the pillar, causing the wall to slide over to the right and reveal the hidden passage.

"That's a loooong way down" Cloud heard Jeanne come from beside him, seeing her peer down the circular stairway that led into the darkness below.

"How about you jump down and tell us how far down it is? It would be a lot quicker than taking the stairs" Axel would joke with a grin as he too looked down at the pit.

"Hey! Great idea!" Jeanne would exclaim before patting his shoulder, causing his glasses to slightly slide down his nose. Jeanne took a few steps back and let out a deep sigh.

"No! I was only joking you fool!" Axel yelled but before anyone could do anything to stop her Jeanne ran towards the stairway, dodging Clive as he made an attempt to grab her to stop her and leapt straight down the middle of the stairway and into the darkness.

It only took a second for the three to hear the sound of her feet colliding with what sounded like a combination of dust and rock.

"Hey! Come on! It's not that far down!" they all heard her yell up to them, Clive giving a slight sigh of a mixed sense of relief and annoyance at making them worry.

"Such childish behavior" Axel muttered before jumping off the wooden stairs, a sound of metal against rock clanging loudly as his boots make contact with the solid ground.

Once Cloud and Clive followed the lead of the two and landed on the lower level of the mansion, Cloud looked around and saw that even the basement of the mansion remained almost untouched since he last stepped foot in it. The underground tunnel like basement stretched on for what seemed like a mile, the door at the opposite end only visible by the small light just above it.

"Rem…just hang on a bit longer" the words formed in his mind as he started to walk forward, the others walking with him as they all felt happier knowing that they were that much closer to saving Rem.

"Hey now, you're just going to ignore your hosts? That's rather impolite of you" a familiar voice echoed through the tunnel, a second voice following right after the other but much briefer.

"Very…." Said the voice before two figures emerged from the shadows ahead of them, both Reno and Rude now stood between them and the door to Rem.

With a grin on his face Reno tapped his electric prod like weapon against the ground, causing sparks to fly each time it made contact while Rude merely stood there silently.

"We were wondering when you would show up, finally decided to get your beating over with huh?" Jeanne would say smugly with her hands pressed against her hips, Reno only laughing in retaliation.

"A beating, huh? Well sorry to disappoint you girl, but if anyone will be getting a beating it will be your ass" Reno said before halting his tapping.

"Excuse me but you don't seem to realize the predicament that you are in. There are only two of you and four of us, what makes you think that you have the required strength to beat us?" Axel would question with a raised brow.

Renos expression would change to that of confusion after hearing Axel compare the two groups.

"Wha…two?" Reno would mutter before moving slightly so that he was looking around the four at the entrance to the basement behind them.

"ELENA! GET DOWN HERE!" Reno would shout out, his voice echoing just as loudly throughout the tunnel.

"…just a sec!" a womans voice sounded from the top of the stairway. The blond turk emerging down the stairs in a heavy pant, the woman being out of breath as she had actually ran down the stairs instead of jumping down like they did.

"..that…was a lot…of stairs" Elena breathed out before regaining her composure, pulling out a small pocket mirror from the breast pocket of her suit.

"Exercise…" was the one word that Rude spoke out next, a word that caused even Jeanne to laugh out at while Elena threw a very disapproving glare over at him as she continued to fix her hair.

"Excuse me?! I am in tip top shape Rude and you know it" Elena retorted back at the man who continued to keep an expressionless face.

"Alright that's enough you two" Renos words bringing the two to silence with Elena still giving a glare over in Rudes direction "We got out orders for taking them down, the professors says he doesn't need them since he only needs Red. So we're free to kill them if we please" Reno informed the others with a smirk.

Not even a second went by after Reno had given the order and Rude was already rushing forward with his hands turned into fists, kicking his feet against the ground to launch himself towards his target. He pulled his arm back and was about to throw a dangerously powerful punch right at Clive but was interrupted by a loud 'boom!' as his fist was met by a metallic fist that halted him in mid air.

Both landing on their feet Axel and Rude stared at each other for a second before lunging at each other again, Axels robotic glove taking in a collection of air in mid punch before using the collected force to make an explosion of air in the back of the glove, giving him enough power to match Rudes punch and create a stalemate between the two.

"I got this one Cloud…" Axel strained to say as he tried to hold his own against the much older and taller Turk.

Against his back Cloud could feel the temperature increase behind him followed by a flash of flame like light. He turned to witness another battle going on between Elena and Clive, the woman using fire based materias to launch flames at the duel knife user who would quickly dodge out of the way of each magic attack. It looked as though Clive was trying to dodge and weave his way past the attacks to get to the source of the flames but with Elena moving around whilst casting her magic, the task seemed to be more difficult one would think.

With Clive and Axel handling two of the three Turks, Cloud drew his attention to Reno who looked as though he was more than willing to fight the buster sword user.

"Looks like almost everyone has a dance partner for this party….well except her that is" he said as he nodded his head over at Jeanne how was already in mid action of aiming her weapon at Reno, her finger already on the trigger and ready to fire away.

"I have just the thing for her" Renos words were followed by the action of him bringing his hand to his mouth and whistled loudly using his fingers.

Without even enough time to demand what Reno had just done, Cloud heard Jeanne let out a small 'ah!' which he then turned to see her dodging a punch from an Axel clone that launched itself from the shadows to their right.

"Impossible!" Cloud could hear Axel say in disbelief; a distraction that Axel knew then would be a flaw on his end as he received a punch to the gut from Rude followed by a kick that would send him flying backwards and land on the ground roughly.

Cloud kept his eyes on Reno even during the chaos going on around him, feeling slightly relieved when he heard the actions of Axel getting to his feet and carrying on the fight with Rude.

Reno suddenly rushed Cloud, activating his prod in half swing before it made contact with Clouds counteracting sword. Cloud suddenly felt a sensation come over his body as the electricity from Renos weapon surged from the prod to his weapon, giving Cloud a large shock.

Cloud quickly drew away but kept his eyes on Reno who continued to grin at him, possibly thinking that he had the upper hand in this fight.

"Damn it" Cloud muttered under his breath, but what happened next sent a sinking feeling to his heart.

From the corner of his eye he could see Jeanne being tossed to the floor by the Axel clone, her gun sliding a good 10 feet away from her leaving her helpless to do anything. From behind him he could hear the laughter of Elena as Clive let out a 'fucking bitch', tempting Cloud to dare to take a quick glance over his shoulder to see that one of her spells had hit the target. Cloud watched as Clive fell to his knees, breathing heavily while holding onto his arm to cover a large burn injury going up along the side of it.

Finally, to worsen things, he witnessed Axel receiving a one-two-three combination from Rude which sent Axel into the rocky wall behind him. Axel attempted to keep himself on his feet but his limp body crumbled to the floor beneath him.

"Wow you guys must be having a bad day, you aren't usually this weak" Reno would mock before attempted another lunge at Cloud, making a stab at Clouds side which was quickly blocked by his buster sword, another shock of electricity being sent throughout his body.

Cloud jumped back away from Reno, a sense of being surrounded started to make him more aware as he noticed the three Turks and Axel clone now encircled him with no where to go.

"Mission complished…" Rude spoke out before wiping a small amount of blood away from his cheek, Axel being the one to land a punch to the Turks face earlier causing a rather large cut to split on Rudes face.

"Yeah yeah, I got it Rude" Reno would respond back before looking back at Cloud.

"It's too bad you know, we all had a lot of fun up until now. It's going to be pretty boring without you guys to kick around in the dirt" Renos eyes looking around at the three motionless bodies before looking at Cloud again.

Even while Reno spoke something stirred inside of Cloud, a feeling that made the pit of his stomach sick. From what he could tell Reno was speaking but he couldn't understand him as his voice became more distant by the second till he could hear nothing anymore. Had he gone deaf? This question entered his mind but something else inside of him was bothering him even more than this thought. The thought of Axel, Jeanne and Clive all injured and the thought of Rem being possibly experimented on in the next room, these all together brought about a feeling of both anger and sadness, two emotions that were very rare to him.

"ahh..." Cloud would let out as he grasped onto the sides of his head as it felt as though his head were being smashed against a concrete wall over and over again. But soon his whole body became overwhelmed with a sense of intensity; his heart rate increased tenfold, his sword and body suddenly feeling lighter than ever.

"What the hell? Hey Rude are you seeing this?" Reno asked with a tone of nervousness in his voice as he witnessed a slight change in the ex-soldier in front of him.

Cloud looked up at the red haired turk, his eyes glowing a bright green as the pupils and colors in his eyes were no longer noticeable from the sheer brightness of the light in them. From the light a continuous wisp of faded energy came from his eyes resembling glowing smoke coming from a green fire. He had no idea what was going on or what Reno was referring to as he had no idea of the condition of his eyes, all he knew was he had to take the turks down to save his friends and he was prepared to do whatever it took to do so.


	20. Chapter 20

Cloud couldn't help but take a moment to absorb the feeling that coursed throughout his body, a sensation that was new to him as he had never experienced it before. His body felt almost lighter than air and the large buster sword that he held in his hand was now no heavier to holding a butter knife, his injuries and the electricity from Reno's previous attacks that surged through his body that had kept him in a paralyzed state was completely gone.

"Wh..what the hell is going on? What did you do?" Reno demanded as he kept his eyes on the ex-soldier, many questions racing through his mind as he bit his bottom lip out of pure nervousness and his grip on the electric prod tightened.

"Reno what's the deal? Lets finish this already" Elenas words echoed through the tunnel, unaware of what was going on since Cloud had his back to her.

"Elena! Wait!" Reno yelled out as he watched her raise her hand above her, readying herself to launch a fire spell at the back of Cloud. Not taking Renos advice in halting her attack, she pointed her hand in the direction of Cloud before a large burst of flames erupted from in front of her and soared across the wide tunnel towards Clouds backside.

A smirk formed on the woman's lips as she watched the flames spread out along the width of the tunnel, feeling rather satisfied with the win she figured she had just ensured. But her smug look was quickly changed to surprise when she saw the flames spread apart from in the middle as if something had sliced through it. Elena started to feel her breath taken away, unsure of what caused her lungs to stop working she looked beside her when something in the corner of her eye was noticed. To her right she saw Cloud standing beside her, the hilt of his sword painfully lodged into her stomach.

"When did he..?" she muttered to herself, wondering when it was that Cloud dodged her attack and how he was able to land a punch on her without her even noticing.

Cloud looked at the stunned Turk, even he himself found it hard to believe that he was moving this fast as if his body was doing all of this on its own without him realizing it.

Extending the fingers of his free hand green energy poured out from his palm and spread outward till it took the form of a sword, an exact replica of the buster sword was now held in his other hand but this one appeared to be made of pure energy.

"Rude stop him!" Cloud could hear Reno command out before listening to the sound of two sets of feet running against the stone floor, the arriving footsteps getting louder as they got closer.

Cloud quickly turned around and used the flat end of his buster sword like a baseball bat to launch Elena in the path between him and the opposing duo, causing them to halt as Elenas body heavily collided with them.

Holding the two swords in hand Cloud watched as the three recovered from the collision, Elena still holding onto her gut with a look of pain.

"Retreat...?" Rude would suggest with a shrug after getting to his feet once again and fixed the sunglasses that still rested on his nose, the only answer being made to his question was the frustrated growl of Reno who was already charging forward once again towards the calm looking blond.

As if by instinct Cloud jumped straight up into the air after noticing the Turks had gained their second wind, both his swords now glowing brightly as he rose them up and over his shoulders.

"Omni-Rain" the words would silently be muttered from him before slashing the air in front of him with his left sword, sending a large version of his blade beam down at Reno

which was soon followed by a series of instantaneous slashes from Cloud which resembled much of his omnislash but instead sent beam after beam to rain down upon the three Turks.

Landing on the ground with a thud, Cloud waited for the dust and dirt that had erupted from his attack to clear to see if the newly crafted attack was enough to stop the trio. Once the air was no longer thick with dust he could see the three unconscious figures of Reno, Rude and Elena on the stone floor.

"Cloud…?" a small voice came from only a few feet away, causing his attention to be drawn to the still fallen body of Jeanne who looked up at him, an expression of amazement and fear on her face.

"What did you do?" Jeanne asked as her eyes looked into his still mako flowing eyes.

Unsure if it was the fact that the fight was over or if it was seeing that Jeanne was alright, something caused the almost invincible feeling in his body to cease causing his eyes to return back to their original blue selves and the green glowing sword to evaporate into nothing more than mako vapor and dissolve into nothing in the air.

"You should show us how you did that" Clives voice came up from behind Cloud, now standing on his own two feet once again but still clinging onto the burn injured arm. Cloud looked down at the ground, filled with as much confusion as the others.

"I…I don't know how…." Was all that came from him in response.

"Interesting" was the only word that came from Axel who was now looking at their leader with a look of curiosity, his glasses bent slightly from the fight so that now it looked as though he was only observing Cloud through his right eye while his left was out of focus.

"Well we can figure this all out later, lets just get Rem and be done with this place" Clive would instruct as he noticed the absentness of Cloud who appeared to be off in his own mind, a state in which Clive knew all too well since he himself was in it most of the time.

"Come on Cloud, lets go save that damsel in distress" Jeanne would say with a grin as she took his hand and started to pull him towards the direction of the door to the lab, snapping Cloud out of his trance like state.

"Y..Yeah" Cloud stuttered lightly before gaining his composure and walked with the others, the questions in his head still rattling around in his mind still as he continued to wonder what came over him just a few minutes ago.

The door to the lab was expected to creak loudly like all of the others did back in the mansion but this one made no noise what so ever, telling them that the lab had been used quite often as of lately. The room itself was a lot different from the dark grungy tunnel that they had just exited; the room being lit with electric lights, furniture placed in random areas, machines with blinking lights and glowing monitors placed along side two glass, cylinder like prisons along the brick wall of the room and an extended library to the left of them.

A sense of anger started to fill Cloud as the memories of being trapped in this very room filled him. Remembering how he was trapped inside one of those very containers for what he guessed to be years to the date of which he regained consciousness. But as the memories filled his head, a large migraine formed within his skull, one that pounded heavily as a voice started to talk to him within his mind.

"How exactly did you escape?" the voice asked rather curiously.

"How? Well it wasn't all that easy to be honest, first I…." he would respond to the voice but then halted as he started to realize something that made his heart quicken "….I….how

did I escape?" the question didn't seem to have an answer as he couldn't remember how he did it.

"That trip from here to Midgar must have been a big one, did someone give you a ride?" the voice throwing yet another question at him, one that he was also unable to answer.

"I must have…I don't know" was all he could reply back, his hands placed to the sides of his head as the pain within was getting more extreme, making his head feel like it was about to explode.

"Hey Cloud! You alright?" Clives voice now filled his ears which brought his eyes to snap open once again. He looked around and saw that the Axel and Clive were looking at him with concerned looks.

"Yeah, I am fine, just a headache" Cloud told the others as to not worry them, thinking to himself that he would deal with these unanswered questions later. His attention was then brought to Jeanne who was at the table in the middle of the room, her hands grasping onto the arm of the familiar red head who laid unconscious on the metallic surface.

"Rem!" Jeanne pleaded out to her in hopes of waking her up, but to her disappointment the eyes of Rem did not open.

"She's fine, it looks like she's in a coma like state" Axel observed out loud to the others as he looked at the monitor near the table which showed that her vital signs were within living conditions. Still Jeanne looked at Rem with a look of worry as she gave Rems arm a tiny squeeze, wondering if Rem would feel the action in her consciousness and cause her to wake up.

A light 'Hmph' was heard from not too far away, causing the three to quickly turn to the source of the noise which came from the library. The person who stood there caused them all to feel a sudden rush of anger flow within them when they saw the very man who was responsible for their unfortunate mako dependency.

"Pitiful, just pitiful" the dark haired scientist said with a displeased tone as he looked at the small group through his circular glasses.

"You!" Jeanne yelled out before rushing forward with her gun in hand, readying herself to aim right for the middle of Hojos forehead.

"Now now, no need for that" Hojo said rather calmly before taking his hand away from his back to reveal a controller like device, pushing a blue button on it to create a yellow transparent wall of energy between him and the oncoming attacker.

"Jeanne hold back!" Cloud commanded desperately, fearing what might happen to her if she were to make contact with the mystery wall.

Jeannes feet skidded to a halt on the floor but even Clouds command wasn't enough to stop her from firing multiple shots right at the professors direction. As the bullets made contact with the wall they seemed to dissolve into nothing right at contact, a sight that made Hojo laugh slightly.

"Did you really think that I would place myself in a room with only one exit and have no means as to protect my person? Truly you don't appreciate a great mind when you see one" a small sneer formed on Hojos lips as he continued to observe the four people in which he had earlier in life claimed to be all 'failures'.

"What did you do to Rem you bastard?!" Jeanne yelled out as she was on the verge of tears, mostly out of frustration as she was sure she was so close to killing of the man she hated more than anyone else in the world.

The professor looked down at Jeanne with a look of curiosity, which suddenly changed to realization.

"Oh I thought I knew you all from somewhere" he said with a small chuckle as he placed his hands behind his back once again "Bunch of failures as I remember it, useless failures with no purpose in life" he mocked them, Cloud guessing the doctor wouldn't be as open as he was now if it weren't for the wall between them.

His very words caused even Clive to grind his teeth in anger, his fingers itching to grab onto his duel knives and slit the doctor's throat.

"But to answer your question…..nothing" Hojo responded rather bluntly as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Nothing...?" Cloud repeated back, finding it rather hard to believe that Hojo would kidnap both Axel and Rem and do nothing to them.

"What about those clones? Why did you make copies of us?" Axel questioned with a calm tone, possibly feeling rather relaxed as he was talking to another man of science even if it be Hojo that he was talking to.

"Why for science of course, what other reason would there be?" Hojo answered with a tone that made it feel like it should have been an answer that even the simplest of minds should have come up with.

"That creation wasn't yours in the first place Hojo" Cloud spoke up, Hojos face showing that Cloud had struck a nerve within the professor.

"Oh? Not my own creation you say?" Hojo said with yet another small chuckle escaping him as he turned his back to them "So I am to assume you know that the one who started the whole idea of cloning was that incompetent idiot of a scientist….Hollander I believe was his name" Hojo spoke as if trying to remember a far off memory that seemed very little to him.

"Yeah I remember how it was him who…" Cloud started to say but was suddenly cut off by the slick haired man who glared at him angrily.

"He created nothing more than the failed blueprints to a science that could only be successfully carried out by me and me alone" Hojos anger instantly left him as he spoke, a few steps taken closer towards the thin wall that separated them from one another.

"…if you say so" Cloud couldn't help but smirk slightly as he noticed the doctor didn't approve with his choice of words about his so called 'brilliance', causing Hojo to turn his back to the three once again.

"There is no point in discussing such things with people of your intelligence, a complete waste of my time" he remarked as he waved a small hand.

"As you can see there is no way for you to kill me, no matter how much you try, take your friend and be gone" Hojos instructions coming as a surprise to the group.

"Take our friend and go? So that's it? You're just going to let us walk out of here and foil your plans?" Jeanne asked in a confused tone, the doctor merely shrugged in response. A sign that he was done talking to them for the time being as he stayed securely behind his wall.

"I get it…we're stuck as it is right now" Clive spoke up as his eyes didn't falter away from the back of the professor.

"With that wall up we can't do anything to him but he can't do anything to us" Clive pointed out before looking down at the unconscious figure of Rem on the table.

"Seems like it, lets head out" Cloud instructed as his eyes didn't leave the figure of the doctor, a sensation burning inside of him that made him want nothing more to do at that moment than to grab the sword off of his back and cut down the very man who was the source of all their misery.

But instead he walked over to the table and looked down at the silent figure of Rem, her chest rising and descending as she breathed quietly but still remained unconscious during all of the commotion.

Taking the slender woman into his arms, he gave one final look over at the professor who still had his back to the group, a sight that angered him even more as it seemed Hojo was merely mocking them in his own fashion.

One by one they left the room, leaving the doctor alone to let out a small snicker as he pulled his hand away from his back. His fisted hand opened up to reveal a small vial filled with what looked like blood.


	21. Chapter 21

The cold air of the tunnel like corridor was the first thing to greet the trio along with the change in light as the lab they had just left had been much more lit up. Carrying Rem in his arms Cloud couldn't help but stare down at the sleeping woman, wondering to himself when she would wake up or if at all.

"Rem..." Cloud muttered rather silently, but even with her in the state she was in he found himself feeling happier than he had ever felt in a long time. Everything seemed to be going according to plan; they got both of their friends back safe and sound and now they were ready to head back home to continue their task of taking over Shinra.

"Umm Cloud...where did they go?" Jeannes question brought Clouds attention over to her, noticing the slightly confused look on her face as she looked ahead of them. Cloud then looked over at what she was referring to, his eyes widening a bit when he too saw that the bodies of the Turks that they left behind earlier were gone. The only signs that were left behind of a battle taking place earlier were the dents and scratches in the walls and floor of the corridor, small pools and trickles of blood staining the surfaces.

"Think they're hiding somewhere?" Clives question caused the three to look around at the area, wondering if they were hiding within the shadows or behind any of the obstacles, waiting for the three to pass by and attack when the chance came up for them.

Waiting in silence the three couldn't hear any noises, not even the quite breathes of the awaiting Turks. Cloud was the first to take the first step forward, wanting to leave not just the mansion but Nibelhiem itself and never return to the town that he saw as nothing more than a nightmare now.

"Oh my, you really are cute aren't you? Especially up close!" a female voice spoke up from behind them. Cloud quickly turned around in surprise, now facing a trio of figures who stood between them and the doorway that they had just exited through.

"Hey Fay, don't go cutting them slack just because you think that guy is cute. We have our orders" spoke up the man on the right. His face hidden behind the wide rimmed hat that was tilted forward to cover his eyes, a long black coat covering his rather slim body that draped all the way down to his boots.

"Oh come on, you know me better than that Miles" the woman referred to as Fay retorted back with a glare over at the man she called Miles, her Hazel eyes shining slightly in the darkness. Wearing a black leather jacket that covered only the upper half of her body and was only zipped up half way up her breasts with no shirt underneath it and tight fitting jeans, she looked back over at Cloud before smirking and running a hand through her shoulder length brunette hair while her other arm was lazily draped over the long wooden pole that rested over and across her shoulders, a rather large scythe blade at the end of it.

"Yes I do know you Fay, you have the tendency to let your lust for men get in the way of our missions and that is why I am reminding you now" Miles said rather bluntly and calmly, his words bringing her to frown in annoyance.

"Who are these idiots?" Axel would question as they listened and watched in silence, seeing the woman named Fay launch a punch at the shoulder of Miles.

"Idiots?...were are they?" the overly large man on Fay's left would question as he scratched the top of his head with a dumbfound look on his face. Fay would let out a loud sigh before giving the man a raised brow look.

"Brox, she was referring to us...I mean you" Fay answered before letting out a small giggle that she hid by turning her face away from him, the large muscular man looking rather pissed.

"Hey!" Brox yelled out angrily.

The man looked powerful with the fact that his body looked like it was made of pure muscle, the only piece of clothing was the baggy black pants that covered his lower half and a set of armour plates on his shoulders. His neck long hair tied back in a ponytail and his eyes looking as though his mind had never come up with an idea of its own in his life.

Cloud had had enough of this screwing around; he wanted to know who these people were and what they were doing there. He took a step towards the three, his face looking more annoyed than ever.

"What exactly is it that you want?" Cloud asked in a more demanding tone, causing Fay to tilt her head off to the side before answering him in her carefree voice.

"Isn't it obvious dear Strife?" Fay asked before taking her weapon off of her shoulders, letting the blade scrape against the stone ground and cause sparks to erupt before pointing the scythe right at him, giving him a wink.

"We're here to kill you handsome" she said rather pleasantly, as if telling them they had just won a prize or something worth while.

Her statement wasn't far from what he had guessed; the large weapon the supposed leader of the group was holding making it more obvious. Cloud heard the whirring of Axels gloves and boots activating and the sound of Clive's duel daggers being unsheathed, signalling to him that they were both getting ready to fight with the newcomers.

"What's your deal?! We didn't do anything to you...have we?" Jeanne's asked as she pulled out her gun, activating it so that it now took the form of an assault rifle. The trio merely laughed at her question, causing much confusion than there was before.

"Oh not us directly little girl" Miles would reply as he lifted his head up, showing the small beard that he grew on the end of his chin along with the blue eyes that were recently hidden behind the rim of his hat.

"Our higher ups see you as a...potential threat to their plans if you are allowed to continue your pursuit of Shinra, so we were given orders to get rid of you before that happens" Miles informed them with a small grin.

"So the president sent you then? Tired of the Turks failing on the constant occasion?" Axel piped up but his words only caused the trio to laugh yet again.

"Pres...President? Do we have one of those?" Brox asked the other two before getting whacked on the head by the staff end of Fay's scythe, the large man showing no realization of being hit at all.

"No you moron, he's referring to Shinra" Fay impatiently informed him before looking back at Cloud.

"Oh so you think we work for Shinra? Well handsome, you're messing with something far bigger than just an...electric company" Fay's hand now twirling her scythe around in the air beside her as she spoke, a rather bored look on her face.

"Bigger...than Shinra?" Jeanne's voice being filled with disbelief as her eyes went from one enemy to the next, wondering if these people would be more of a hassle than the Turks.

"Indeed, Shinra is actually a mere tool for our predecessors. The so called 'president' works under the organization, just like we do" Miles information sent a chill down the Clouds spine.

He had never even heard of such a thing, to think that Shinra itself was nothing more than a small extension of a higher power above it was hard to believe.

Just by looking at these three and the fact that they were above that of Shinra, he knew that this would be a difficult fight but he wasn't about to give up just yet, not after just recently saving the two friends who he thought they had lost only a few days ago.

Cloud laid Rem down on the ground gently off to the side, giving her one final look at her still soundless body before facing the trio once again. His eyes strained as he tried to focus, trying to figure out how he had brought about that power he had earlier, the one thing that would more than likely ensure their win in this battle.

The woman Fay tilted her head in curiosity as she observed Cloud as he clenched his hands into fists with closed eyes. She then let out a soft giggle after observing him.

"Oh isn't that cute?! He's trying to use 'Mako Trance'" Fay would say with a small laugh, the other two following her lead in laughing at the blond male who now looked up at them with curious eyes.

"Mako...Trance?" Axel repeated back with a look of interest in his eyes, Jeanne merely scratching the side of her cheek as she was now too confused by everything that was going on.

Brox would laugh out loudly after Fays reference to Clouds attempt being cute.

"Haha! The little man thinks he can use our power?" Brox's words causing Cloud and the others to look at the large man with a sense of fear.

"Your...power?" Clouds words escaped his lips as his eyes looked at them, for the first time ever his eyes showing that he was afraid, a feeling he hadn't felt in a long time.

His question was answered by the grins of all three figures that stood only a few yards away from him. Each one of them closed their eyes as they all let out small chuckles, causing the four fighters to wonder what was so funny. What they witnessed next was enough to cause Jeanne to let out a quiet 'oh no...'

Standing before them the three figures snapped their eyes open to reveal their eyes were now glowing radiantly with mako like wisps of smoke that rose to the air and evaporate within seconds, just as Clouds had done when fighting the Turks.

"Cloud! Run!" Clive yelled out as the other three were already retreating towards the direction of the ladder that led up to the first floor of the mansion. Cloud stood on the spot as it had just dawned on him of what was going on since he hadn't seen the physical results of this power when it came over him.

Before retreating with the others, Cloud made a dash for Rem in hopes of grabbing her before the enemy could prevent him from escaping with the others. But just as soon as he felt the tips of his fingers touch her body, a force halted him before he could get any closer and pulled him away, launching him to the opposite side of the tunnel. As he flew back he could see the pair of glowing eyes looking straight at him as the scythe wielding woman made it apparent that it was her that grabbed him and tossed him off to the side, not showing much strain in doing so.

After feeling his body collide with the stone wall he let out a loud groan of pain as he felt the stones of the wall dig into his spine while contacting, his body falling to the floor but recovering almost instantly. He now gripped his sword in his hand as he kept his eyes on the approaching woman who walked slowly in his direction, a maniacal grin on her lips as she raised her scythe up so that it was now at hip height.

His attention was drawn away from her after hearing a gut wrenching scream from Jeanne, his eyes shifting over to where he guessed he had heard her yell out from. His heart gave hard thump against his chest as he witnessed the figure of Jeanne being held up high above the ground by the man Brox, his fist clenched tightly around her throat as her face was starting to turn a deep red while under his foot Cloud could see Axel trying with all of his might to hold up the mans boot from crushing down on his head.

From his other side, Cloud heard a yell that he couldn't even recognize. He looked over to see Clive pinned up against the wall of the corridor by the coated man, his face contorted in anguish and a loud yell escaped him as Miles grinned at his handy work. Cloud blinked to make sure his eyes were working correctly as he saw what it was that was making Clive yell out like he had never heard him yell out before. The hand of Miles looked as though it had gone through Clive's chest but no hole was made or blood seeped out from him, it was as though the mans hand had ghostly phased into Clive and from where Cloud was standing and the reaction of Clive, the man had his heart in the palm of his hand while still in his body.

"You shouldn't really ignore your date you know" he heard the familiar voice of Fay whisper into his ear before bringing his attention to the woman before him, being too distracted to even realize that she had her scythe blade behind him with the sharp end pressed against the back of his neck and her foot placed gently against his chest.

He wanted to kill them, kill them all for what they were doing to his friends, making them go through the pain they were going through at that very moment. His teeth grinded against each other out of pure frustration, he knew that he was trapped and there was nothing he could do to stop any of this.

"Any last words before we finish you all off?" Fay would ask as he glowing eyes looked into his. Cloud wanted to yell out at her, tell her to stop the others from killing the three but at this point saw no use of it as he had already given up and knew that no amount of pleading would stop the trio from killing their targets.

"Nothing? Nothing at all then? That's too bad, well at least you can't say I wasn't nice enough to let you have one final farewell" Fay said with a small giggle.

Cloud felt the pressure of her foot against his chest as she pushed him back against the awaiting blade behind him. At that moment he quickly let go of his sword and grabbed onto her boot and pushed against her, halting the pressure she pushed down on him. But just as he thought he might have a chance he suddenly felt weaker, as if the energy within him was being sucked out.

"No…not now" Cloud thought to himself as he realized his body was running low on mako, making Fay's foot become heavier by the second.

The last thing him seeing was the pair of mako eyes that looked down at him before everything went black, the only thing he could hear was the faint voice of Rem calling out his name.


	22. Chapter 22

The voice of Rem crying out Clouds name became more distant by the second to the point of fading from existence, not a single sound could be heard by him as darkness and silence were the only two things that kept Cloud company.

"So this is death?" his voice echoed throughout his mind. He had always wondered what the afterlife would be like but he never imaged it to be like being locked up in a world of nothingness. But one thing bothered him about drifting around aimlessly in this world of the dead, he felt cold.

"Can you really feel things when you die? I don't have a body anymore to feel such things" his thoughts continued as his mind started to go off on its own and create theories on how he is able to feel things such as temperature. Suddenly something dawned on him, a realization that made his heart jump.

"I feel cold...I can feel myself breathing...my heart is pounding against my chest, then that means" the thoughts entered his mind right before he let out a scream of pain as he felt a surge of electricity course threw him. Once the shock subsided, his eyes snapped open to find himself staring up at a white ceiling and lights above brightly shining down on him.

"Doctor! He's conscious!" he could hear a woman call out as he took in a heavy breath of air, gasping desperately to fill his lungs with air. His eyes shifted around to find himself in what looked like a small room surrounded by hospital equipment, a blond haired woman standing above him with a big smile on her face as she placed a hand on his cheek. "Breath sir breath, that's it, you're fine now" she comforted him as a black haired doctor appeared on the other side of the curtain that surrounded his bed, the man looking down at him with an observing look as he scribbled something on the clipboard he carried with him.

"Wh..where...am" Cloud breathed out with much difficulty, his mind filled to the brim with questions as he looked up at the doctor who looked rather bored as he continued to write on the paper.

"You're in the hospital sir, you were found outside the Midgar gates of Sector 7" the nurse informed him before taking his wrist in her hand, informing the doctor that his pulse was still going at a faster than normal rate.

"Th...others, are they...ok?" Cloud asked, having no idea how he would have ended up at the Midgar gates after making it all the way to Nibelhiem but all he cared at this moment was the well being of his friends. The last image he had in his head was the sight of Clive, Axel and Jeanne being defeated with ease by their new enemies and Rem laying helpless on the ground only a few feet away from him as the overwhelmingly powerful Fay executed him.

"Others?" the doctor asked curiously as his eyes met with Clouds, his attention then going over to the nurse on the other side of the bed.

"Did we get any other patients along with him that I wasn't made aware of?" his question was answered with a slight shake of her head.

"No doctor, this was the only patient brought in at the time" her words bringing a sense of shock to him as he instantly sat up in his bed, attempting to launch himself out of the bed.

"I have to go back...to Nibelhiem" Cloud groaned as he was being held back by the two before being pushed back down onto the bed.

"Take it easy sir, you still haven't fully recovered from your mako poisoning" the nurse instructed him with a stern voice.

"Mako...poisoning?" Cloud repeated back with curiosity in his tone. He didn't remember coming down with any form of poisoning, the last time he could remember going through such a thing was back before he met the others when he first escaped from Nibelhiem. His attention was brought other to the front of the room where a small TV was broadcasting the news, a reporting doing an article on the most recent attack of Avalanche on one of the reactors.

"They're still alive?!" Cloud asked with surprise, both the nurse and doctor looked at him with puzzled looks.

"Seems you have been having some bad dreams during your coma, Avalanche attacks have been non stop as of lately. Bunch of fools have been making everyone in the city too scared to leave their homes" the doctor would say as he watched the broadcast for another second before looking at Cloud once more.

"You seem to be in ok condition now, we can keep you here for the rest of the day to recover but after that we would like you to go home as we need the beds for more serious needing patients" the doctor said bluntly before walking off and disappearing behind the white curtain.

Cloud let himself fall back against the pillow of his bed, the nurse giving a slight bow before taking her leave shortly after. Cloud sat up from his bed and looked around the room some more, noticing for the first time that his clothes were now neatly folded on the nearby chair, leaving him to wear a hospital gown that was a bit too revealing on the backside.

He walked over to the chair and grabbed his clothes, his eyes looking at them carefully when he noticed that the Shinra uniform he had worn for years now was practically brand new and the red scarf he wore was missing.

"Do they know about me?" he wondered as he started to change, wondering if they knew he was an ex-soldier and somehow got him a new uniform to replace his old tattered one. His hand suddenly clamped around his neck, feeling for the wound that was inflicted on him by the scythe wielding Fay. To his surprise though there was no wound, not even a scratch. "I thought she for sure cut my head off" Cloud pondered to himself as he put on his uniform.

After another hour had passed by, Cloud left the hospital once he felt that he was fully recovered, both the nurse and doctor who tended to him during his time there seeing him off as he went through the doors. Making his way down the dusty street in which he recognized as the Sector 5 area of Midgar, Cloud looked around to see that indeed Avalanche was having an affect on the business of the city as he noticed the streets were almost bare.

"Hey, so you're finally awake huh?" a familiar voice came from behind him, one that made his breath halt for only a moment before he turned to see the face of Clive standing only a few feet away.

"Clive...what's going on? How did we end up here?" Cloud questioned the green haired man who looked at him curiously.

"Well you were pretty out of it when I first found you outside the limits of Midgar by the gate, you probably don't remember me carrying you all the way here" Clive said with a small laugh.

"Well cheers for your recovery, I better get going" Clive said with a wave of his hand as he turned his back to Cloud and started to make his way down the street.

"Heading back to the warehouse? I'll join you and then we can start looking for the others" Clouds words caused Clive to look at him as if he were crazy.

"Excuse me? The warehouse? I am not too sure what you are talking about" Clive would respond as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Well...later" Clive would say before walking off, leaving Cloud on his own in a state of confusion. "It's like...he didn't know me" Cloud thought to himself before clenching his teeth.

"What's going on here?" he wondered with nothing but frustration building up inside of him. Walking down the street alone, his mind started to wander about as he tried to figure out what was going on. His head started to hurt, causing his hands to clamp onto his head as he closed his eyes tightly from the pain that started to grow within. In his mind he saw a blurry image along with Clives voice.

"Come on, we're almost there, just hang on" he could hear Clive's voice call out to him as he saw the green haired man carrying him down the street with his arm wrapped around Clives shoulder. His hands removed from his head as the pain subsided, a look of realization on his face as he breathed heavily. His attention then drawn over to the sound of another familiar voice that filled his ears.

"Oh come on Zeig, stop being such a tease already" he could hear the voice of Jeanne from not too far away, his eyes moving in the direction of the voice to see Jeanne standing in front of a street vendor with a much taller looking youth who she had her arm linked with. It was her but...her fashion was different from usual, wearing a green dress and her hair down to her hips without it put into her usual pigtail fashion.

He watched as they walked off together, her head leaning onto the mans shoulder while they moved onto the next street store vendor.

"Jeanne..." Clouds voice was rather raspy as he wanted to call out to her, but suddenly his head started to hurt again, another image coming to his mind.

"Hey, is he alright? He looks really sick" her voice echoed in his mind as a very faint image played out in his mind, seeing himself being carried by the man who helped him earlier while Jeanne walked along side them with a concerned look on her face, the same man that was with her pulling her away.

"Never mind them, he's probably just another drunk from the slums or something" the man she referred to as Zeig said rather snottily before they walked off together, slightly hearing her retort back to him with a 'that was rather mean to say don't you think?'

"Was it...all just a dream?" Cloud started to wonder as he continued to walk around aimlessly, the realization of the entire time he spent with the four people he had come to see as friends was nothing more than just a dream.

After another hour of walking with no destination, the sound of a train whistling blowing loudly brought him back to awareness. His eyes looked over to his right at the train which was parked on the rails, a single worker standing by the door that led within the locomotion who looked bored as he stood on the spot. Feeling weak and tired, Cloud sat down and rested against the brick platform and let out a sigh of exhaustion. He suddenly felt his eyes begin to burn, his heart beating faster than normal and his hands shaking slightly.

"They're gone..." was all that went through his mind, feeling sadder than he could even remember.

"Come on, turn that frown upside down Cloud" he could hear Jeanne speak in his mind as he remembered one time when he was sitting at the office table in the warehouse looking bored and how she tried to keep him entertained. "I can see now why they picked you to be the leader Cloud, you're so strong" Rems voice being the next to come up, remembering the first day he met her on the streets of Midgar, how she took no time at all to accept his invitation to join his group. He wanted to cry, just a single tear to shed for the ones he left behind in the world that he created and came to see as the people who he held dear to him. But one thing prevented that single tear from forming.

"Is it possible...to be sad over a dream? Something that was never real?" the words echoed in his mind as he sat on the cold ground of the train station, his eyes showing the absent mindedness that filled him.

Just as he was about to get up from the cold ground he felt his body succumb to a numb feeling that suddenly spread throughout his body, his eyes starting to blur as he felt his consciousness starting to slip away slowly.

"It's…like back then" Cloud thought as he recalled the same feeling back at Nibelhiem all of those years ago when he was inflicted with mako poisoning. He tried to lift his hand off from the ground but failed, a small groan of defeat escaped him as he closed his eyes.

"Cloud? Is that you?" a voice called out to him, a familiar one that wasn't one of the four who he had heard on a daily basis of his dreams but one from a distant past. His eyes opened and looked up slowly, seeing the image focus slowly to show the long haired woman standing before him in a small black mini skirt and white sleeveless top, her brownish red eyes blinking at him with a look of amazement.

"It is you!" Tifa declared with a large smile on her lips. Cloud merely looked up at her for a few seconds more before realizing that the sensation of weakness had left him, he then took the chance to get to his feet so he was now looking down at her as he was a few inches taller than she was now.

"Tifa...what are you doing here?" Cloud questioned, finding it rather odd that he saw her in his dreams in this very city which only felt like a few days ago. But here she stood before him, seeing each other for the first time in who knows how long.

"I moved here a while back, opened my own bar and everything! What about you? Did you ever make it to Soldier? I haven't heard from you in a long time you know" Tifa pointed out in a rather harsh tone but still kept her smile on her face, obviously too happy to actually be mad at him. Seeing her smile lighten his mood, indeed the dream he had still bothered him but having her right there infront of him after all this time made him feel a bit better, enough to make him grin slightly as he lifted his buster sword.

"Of course I did, was there ever a doubt?" Cloud answered rather cockily, before feeling his head pound heavily. "Liar" a faint voice said to him within his mind, one that he merely shrugged off before speaking once again.

"I left Shinra though, now I work as..." he halted as he tried to remember what it was that he was planning on doing once reaching Midgar, but one word came to mind that gave him an answer.

"A mercenary" he blurted out.

Tifa looked at him curiously "A mercenary huh? Well you did pick a lot of fights with the other kids back in Nibelhiem...guess boys never grow up do they?" Tifa added with a giggle, which was quickly cut short as she looked as though she had just gotten an idea, one that caused her to grin happily.

"Hey! That means you take on any mission for the right price right?" her voice filled with hope before her eagerness showed on her face for his answer.

"Uh yeah, I guess that's how it works" Cloud replied back as he rubbed the back of his head, shortly after he felt her tug on his arm with both her hands and pulled him towards the exit of the train station.

"Great! I have some friends that I want you to meet, I...they could really use your help Cloud" she would go off as she continued to pull on his arm. Cloud couldn't help but frown slightly at her assertiveness, not sure what it was that she was getting him into or who it was that she wanted to introduce him to. But as he walked along side her through the grungy looking area of the sector 7 slums, he figured that it was Tifa who was asking for this favor and she was one of the few people who he would help out without hesitation.

As Cloud was pulled away by the childhood friend of his past a lone hooded figure stood up on top of the train, watching as the two disappeared behind the wall of debris that separated the trainyard from the rest of the slums.

"Good luck handsome" the womanly voice said from underneath the hood, a small grin forming on her lips.

(I just wanted to take a moment to thank you all for reading my story, I know the story isn't very...canon and is way off from the original story, but I do hope a majority of you have enjoyed reading Other Fates. Please send me your opinions of this story, whether they be compliments or criticism I encourage them both as I want to know what parts should stay the way they are while knowing what needs to be changed. I am currently working on FF7: Other Fates 2 but in order for me to continue on I would like to get some feed back on this story so I know what to do and what not to do in the second installment. Thank you again for reading, hope you had fun)


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